


The Rain God's Offering

by A_I_Kaede, Elireide



Series: Reincarnation AU [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-02 02:43:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 30,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13308735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_I_Kaede/pseuds/A_I_Kaede, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elireide/pseuds/Elireide
Summary: Alternate Universe.  Gods and HumansKeith is the stubborn God of Rain who won't take offerings.Lance is his most recent offering (because humans are determined to give him an offering.)Something about Lance makes Keith keep him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> https://postimg.org/image/wpszgbfsl/  
> ^cover art^

Lance wakes to the door of his home being broken down as the town heads grab him up.  
"What the hell?!" He jumps up defensive but is quickly grabbed by a larger man as the town head enters the home and looks around.  
"We need a new offering."  
"Wait? Again?!" Lance starts then jolts. "Wait?! Me?!" He struggles against the men holding him to little avail.  
"We have sent the messenger already. You are to be our offering this month." The man looks down his nose are the barely clad Lance. "Perhaps the god will find use for a pathetic 'dancer' such as yourself."  
Meanwhile, a tired messenger has entered Keith's shrine and clears his throat. "We have found a suitable offering for you my lord." He announces, trying to sound optimistic.  
Keith sighs and looks at the messenger. "I thought I told you to stop giving me offerings." His expression showed how bored he was. He was sitting on his chair, elbow on the armrest and his head leaning on his hand.  
"Y-yes my lord. But we wish to have a happy God overseeing us." The messenger laughs nervously, especially when Lance can be heard arguing with the men hilding him still.  
"This is bullshit! Your offerings are stupid!" He barks. "I don't want this! What the fuck is your issue?! Let me go!" He shouts, unable to see as the offerings are always covered (for the town's sake, of course).  
With a forced smile, the messenger turns back to Keith. "You're offering." He chokes out.  
"I am no offering!" Lance shouts angrily. "I don’t want to be a damn God's toy!" He shouts, still covered as they walk him up to Keith.  
Keith only sighs again as he watched them approach him. How many times has he told them to stop this offering ritual? Especially human ones. Would Shiro take this offering or would it be safer to let this one go?  
Lance struggles to get out of their grasp and once the cloth is removed he snarls at them, clearly pissed off. They won't release him as Lance threatened more than once to take off as soon as they did. Someone grabs one of the slave chains to keep him in place as Lance struggles to get away before finally looking at Keith. His eyes go wide for a second, unable to hide his shock at such a sight. Ok, he might not totally hate this after all, but he still didn’t want to be a damn slave.  
"So you're the damn hard to please asshole who doesn’t take any of our offerings then?" He nearly growls. When he does, one of the guards knock him over yelling to be respectful.  
Keith quickly shoos away the guards. He doesn't want to deal with any of them right now. "Please leave," he says to the messenger. He then turns to Lance and sighs. "I'm not hard to please. I just don't want offerings.”  
"Yeah? Well to our town, that means hard to please." He growls before trying to remove his chains. "It’s not like...ok so some of the offerings liked the idea," he grunts as he tries to pull apart the chains. "I don’t like the idea. It's stupid. I have plenty of other things to do then disappear from existence like basically everyone else." He doesn't want to admit he's scared so he just keeps trying to get free of the chains.  
"Can you get up? I can take the chains off," Keith says, sitting up straight. He extends an arm towards Lance.  
Lance jerks back, clearly not trusting the god in front of him. "Yeah? So what? I can be killed or sacrificed or return to town to be shamed?" He glares at him. "I'm fine I look good in chains anyway I guess." His throat is tightening as he realizes he has actually  been given as an offering. Sitting up and trying to not look too hurt or scared, Lance just turns and looks back to the entrance of the shrine.  
Keith sighs again. Looks like he can't return this offering back to the town. Using his powers, he cuts the chains with water. He didn't want to cut the human so he left the actual shackle part on the human's wrists.  
Lance jumps when he feels the weight of the chains fall so he turns to look back at Keith with an eyebrow raised. He actually scoffs at him.  
"So I'm not good enough either." He laughs a bit. "They will never learn." Despite his multiple threats to run, Lance stays seated and looks back toward the entrance. "So what am I suppose to call you?" He says, voice becoming continually calmer. As much as he wouldn’t admit it, Lance had kinda hoped to be good enough. If for no reason other than hell, the god isn’t bad to look at. "Master? Oh great one? I've never been very good at etiquette."  
"If you want to stay, you may," he says, seeing how Lance isn't running away. He isn't opposed to housing humans with no place to go, especially if they were forced to be his offering. He hopes it's not noticeable but his cheeks feel slightly warm at being called master. "Just call me Keith."  
"I don't want to stay." Lance growls then perks up, obviously confused. "Wait. What? You dont mind me staying?" He can't hide his surprise then just shakes his head and mumbles. "Cool. Slave life. Guess its a bit better than my old job at least." He hears the god speak and when the name is so casual, Lance looks back at him again. "Ok, what's with you? They depicted you as some cocky god. Now you just want me to call you 'Keith' like not "the mighty Keith" or "master Keith" or "lord Keith" just...Keith?" He swallows hard, finding it hard to keep from looking intimidated despite acting as confident as he portrays.  
Keith blushes a little more with each title. "Yes. My name is Keith so that is what I would like to be called. The only reason they keep giving me offerings is because they want me to use my powers for their benefit." He rests his head on his hand again.  
"What? Rain?" Lance stares at him with an eyebrow raised. "It is kinda useful you know, Keith." He emphasizes the name then sighs. "So why not just...accept one and call it a day? They'd leave you alone that way." Lance finally steps out of the chains and stands up to walk to the edge of the shrine. He didn’t exactly have time to put on much of anything fancy so he's clad only in his dancing garb from his work the previous night. Skin tight black suit with blue dancing sash and decorative coins.  
"I guess... But they don't have to offer me anything, I'll make it rain every now and then anyways." He blushes more when he finally looks over Lance's figure.  
Lance just stares off, arms crossed. "Well humans are needy. Sometimes we just want it to rain for no reason too." He sighs hen looks back to the shackles on his wrists. "Can you take these off too?" His voice is significantly quieter when he asks this. "They kinda hurt." He adds even quieter before swallowing a lump in his throat.  
"You'll have to come here so I don't hurt you," Keith answers while extending his free hand. Maybe this human likes rain. He makes a mental note to make it rain later.  
Lance tenses up, obviously nervous but swallows and nods before heading over to him and holding his arms out, head turned away. He’d been told not to make eye contact with the gods as he was beneath them. Plus, he really is afraid and he doesn't want it to show too much. "Thank you...Keith." He says nervously.  
Keith gently grabs places one hand under Lance's and uses his other hand to carefully cut the shackles off. He then moves his hands back to his sides. "Yeah, no problem. Since you seem to have decided to stay, what type of room do you want?" He isn't really bothered by no eye contact, no human makes eye contact with him anyways.  
"You don't get it do you?"Lance laughs almost bitterly and rubs his freed wrists. "Humans that are "offered to the gods" don't get to just come home and go "sorry he didn’t like me" and everyone is cool with it." Lance swallows hard and tries to steady his emotions. "And I was about as low on the food chain as you can get anyway so..." He finally looks up to Keith and tries to hold his glare. "So do I want to stay? Not really. But i’ll get used to it." He turns back again and sighs. "I like hammocks." He says quietly before heading back toward the edge of the shrine and hugs himself again as he stares out to the sky.  
Keith sighs again. He didn't mean to seem rude or anything with that question and there are other towns he could bring Lance to. He slowly gets up from his seat to go prepare Lance a room. He disappears into a hallway.  
Lance watches him walk away and is surprised he gets to be left alone. At that he wanders around the field outside the shrine, enjoying the feeling of grass in his toes. Assuming Keith would be a while, Lance starts to him a song before dancing a bit in the grass, smiling at the feeling of the grass tickling his toes. He couldn’t deny dancing in the open like this was nicer than dancing for sleaze-bags.  
Lance only told him what type of bed he liked so the bed was done quickly. On his way to another room, he notices Lance dancing around outside. Would this be a good time to make it rain? Maybe a little bit. He makes it lightly rain outside as he works on a room that he thinks Lance would like more than a bedroom.  
Lance had his eyes closed as he danced, attempting to calm his nerves a bit so when he feels the first drop of rain his eyes shoot open in surprise and his smile grows larger. He looks to see if he can spy Keith to thank him but isn't sure he sees him. Laughing a little, Lance tries to remember the last time he danced in the rain like this. He takes a deep breath then hops up on a boulder outside and just sits in the rain before shouting. "Thank you!" In a sing song voice.  
Keith can hear Lance from inside and cracks a small smile. He wonders how Shiro will react when he sees him finally taking an offering. He finishes the matted flooring before moving onto installing other dance equipment.  
Lance isn't sure if Keith hears him, but he's not ready to come inside yet.  Over the years, dance has become a method of anxiety relief, so he hops back up and does some of his more ballet type moves and breathes deeply, hoping to rid himself of the last bit of nerves in his stomach. Surprised to still not see Keith, he finally comes inside, having been outside for a significant amount of time in the rain, he is dripping when he go ally comes in but finally holda a small smile.  
"Keith?" He questions down the hallway.  
Keith had finished the new room and has gone back to his own room for a bit, feeling the need to shower and change after having to dust and getting super glue all over his fingers.  
When there is no response, Lance heads back to the entrance of the shrine, afraid to wander without permission. He curls up on himself, suddenly aware of how lonely he is and tries to patiently wait for Keith's return.  
Keith shortly returns back to his chair and is surprised to see Lance curled up in the floor. "Did you not like the rain?" he asks, slightly worried.  
"Oh no. I loved it actually." Lance tries to perk up and pretend he's fine. "Just didn’t want to invade your privacy or go somewhere I'm not welcome." He stays wrapped around himself. "I love rain actually. It’s very peaceful." His voice is quiet and distant.  
"Your bedroom is finished if you would like to go rest," Keith says. He isn't sure if the human was tired or sad.  
"I'd love to see it." He nods with a well practiced smile then stands and motions for Keith to lead the way. "I don’t need to rest though. I just woke up after all." His voice sounds temporarily bitter but he swallows it as to not anger his god.  
Keith starts to lead the way when Lance motions him to. He glances back at Lance for a second. He doesn't know how to be with humans. He opens the door to Lance's room and lets the human walk inside. He doesn't go inside, not having a reason to. The room size was only a little smaller than his so it was spacious.  
Lance enters then looks back at Keith in shock. "This is all for me?" He isn't use to such spacious living quarters.  
"Yeah. If there is anything else you want, I can go get it for you." Keith stays in the doorway as he watches Lance.  
"All I needed was a hammock." He is nearly in tears as he looks around the room, trying to remember having anything this nice before. "I'm just a stupid, useless human. I have nothing that makes me important. Why do you think I was forced to be an offering? I'm sure the house leader is being lavishly rewarded." He shakes his head, cutting his rambling off.  "I- I really don't need this." He holds himself then his eyes go wide as if something in his head clicks. No. He's seen this type of lavish living before. He didn't like it then though. "What...is my job here?" He asks, voice suddenly uneven.  
"Job? Why do you need a job?" Keith asks. "I literally don't need anything." He raises an eyebrow. He feels kind of sad for Lance but the sudden change in mood was weird. Should he get revenge for this human? He doesn't like cruelty.  
"But..." Lance finally walks into the room to run his hands along items, slowly taking everything in. "But I have to do something, right? Why else would I deserve all of this?" He doesn’t realize how self deprecating such a statement is, just states what he's use to.  
"You don't need to deserve anything to have all this. This is the basics of the essential. You deserve this just by living." Keith starts to lean against the door frame.  
"Essential is a place to sleep, food and a roof." Lance responds quickly then sits shakily on the hammock. "I'm not worthy of all this for nothing. Especially not from a god. I-I can't take all this." He looks over to Keith nervously but forces a smile. "I...need to do something for you at least."  
Keith sighs, being reminded of the messenger. "I just said I don't need anything." He hopes Lance doesn't react this way when he sees all the dance stuff in the other room. "If you really want to do something for me , make a list of the people you think is the cruelest to everyone in the town." He feels the need to let out this unknown emotion through being mean.  
"I need to do something though." He laughs. "Even if you just want me to clean or something. "I am your offering. I have to serve you." The next statement causes Lance to go quiet for a bit.  
"Cruelest?" Lance looks confused. "No one was particularly cruel." He swallows hard and his eyes find the ground again. "There are just those with more power than others who..." He shakes his head and forces a smile. "They paid for my clothes and my tattoos. No one was cruel."  
Keith frowns. He'll just have to figure it out on his own or punish the whole town. "If you want to clean, you can go clean the room across the hallway." That was the room with all the dance stuff and matted flooring.  
Lance smiles and nods but looks over his clothes. "Should I change so I don't ruin anything from the rain?" He worries about the repercussions of ruining a God's items.  
Keith actually has to think about it. Would water ruin anything in there? Probably not. "Hmmn... No. You'll be fine. You can go dry off if you want to." He points to the connected bathroom.  
Lance shakes his head and smiles, feeling a bit more like himself since he has something to do now. "I'm fine. It doesn’t bother me." He stands and heads toward the other room, nervously passing in front of Keith, mindful to bow his head when he does. "Should I gather things to clean?" He turns back to Keith as he gets to the other room, realizing he wouldn't get much done without something to clean with.  
"No. Everything needed should be inside," Keith said, getting a little nervous on how Lance would react.  
Lance nods then enters the room and silently looks around. He walks up to a couple of the items without saying a word then forces a muffled, "there's nothing to be cleaned here." While holding back tears. "D-did you do all this for me?" His voice is shaky, he can't look at Keith, worried about crying in front of a god.  
"Yeah. I had a few dancing things that I never use and sometimes the weather isn't optimal for dancing." Keith is standing in the doorway. Lance seems to be taking this better than his actual bedroom.  
Trying to muffle his tears, lance covers his face with both hands and leans into one of the stretching bars. "Thank you." He forces out then wipes his eyes. Remembering proper etiquette for a blessing is to kneel, Lance turns and kneels to Keith, hoping his tears are not too noticeable. "Thank you so much. I can never repay you, you realize that, right?" He speaks into the ground, too ashamed to look up.  
Keith feels weird to have someone kneeling in front of him like this. "I don't need repayment. I hardly have anything to do ever so you can take it as me being bored." Keith hoped that helped Lance stop feeling to in debt to him.  
Lance swallows hard and cant help but let out a laugh. "You gave me two rooms out of boredom?" He wipes his eyes and laughs again, realizing wiping damp eyes onto already damp skin doesn't really do much. Lance finally stands up and smiles nervously.  
"Yes?" Keith raises an eyebrow, hoping that was the right answer. He really doesn't have anything else to do. He is usually bored and making the two room was actually entertaining for him.  
Lance shakes his head. "Maybe it a a good thing your offering is...er, was? An entertainer." He looks to the ribbon hanging and grabs into it, seeing if he can grip the fabric with damp hands. "Sh- should I dance for you?" He isn't really sure how this works with a god.  
"You can dance all you want. I don't have to watch."  
"That's not the-" Lance looks to the ground. "I like to dance for people. And I've me we danced for a god before." He blushes a bit then smiles. "I'd like to dance for you if you'd like to watch."  
"Then I'll watch. I'm curious how you dance with those ribbons." Keith steps inside and sits against the wall.  
Lance seems to light up. He wraps the cloth around his wrists before starting to climb his way up. He then spins his way down, stopping somehow fluidly as he stretches and suspends himself to do the moves he's grown to enjoy. This was his favorite type of dancing after all. No fear of unwelcome hands when he's up like this. As he hangs with one leg wrapped, Lance looks over to Keith and smiles. It comes easier than usual, likely because its one of the first time he's danced without much worry of what is to happen after. Once he feels hes danced enough, Lance releases himself down slowly before touching the ground and giving a small bow. "Did you like it?" He asks, slightly out of breath now.  
Keith's eyes were wider than when Lance started. "Yes. That was amazing." He stands up and touches the ribbons. "How do you not fall?" He looks to Lance with bright curious eyes.  
Lance rubs the back of his head and blushes when he sees Keith's face light up. "I fell a lot when I started actually." He laughs a bit. "It's mainly about wrapping it properly and knowing how to distribute your weight to keep it from getting too tight or loose." He looks back up and catches Keith's eyes. His breath hitches and he swallow hard before looking back to the ribbon. "I'm sure it would be easy for a god." He smiles and pushes himself to finish his thought. "If you are bored...I could teach you some day."  
"If you're willing to teach me. It might take me awhile." Keith wraps one around his hand and slowly lowers his hand to feel the ribbon slide against his skin.  
"Well, it's not like I have much else I can do." Lance says offhandedly. He shakes his head when he sees Keith touching the silk. "It really feels amazing once you know what you're doing. Closest thing to flying I think humans can achieve...at least in my opinion." He smiles and watches Keith with curious eyes.  
Keith looks to Lance. "Do you want to fly?" He has a friend that can make Lance float for a bit. That's closer to flying.  
Lance's eyes light up. "That would be amazing." He smiles brilliantly but shakes his head. "But you don't have to do that for me." He looks around the room with adoration on his face. "This is more than enough." He looks at the distance between the two of them and suddenly realizes holy shit I'm way too close to him and almost jumps backwards to give Keith more room before bowing. "S-sorry about that."  
Keith looks at him confused. "Sorry for what?" He hadn't realized how close they were. "I have a friend who visits every now and then that can let you fly for a bit."  
"I was far too close. I didn’t mean any disrespect." He bows again then looks back up at his second sentence. "I really don’t need it. It wounds amazing, truly, but I'm already asking so much more than I need." He bows again then sighs. "Sss-speaking od asking too much..." He looks up to Keith bashfully. "Do you have anything to eat? I haven't...well they brought me straight here." Bowing more, lance apologizes. "I'm so sorry for all of this." He says as he basically folds himself in half.  
"I don't have much but there is some fruit." Keith says and starts heading towards where the food is. He shows Lance where the grapes, blueberries and strawberries are. "You should probably grow more food in the field." He suggested that Lance should do it since Lance seems to want to do things.  
Lance grabs a handful of each and starts to eat them, clearly more hungry than he'd let on then smiles and nods. Once his mouth is empty, Lance looks toward where he imagines the field to be. "You would let me do that?" He asks before eating a few more of the fruits. Somewhere between eating and following behind Keith, Lance realizes, these are likely offerings from nearby farmers and feels somehow guilty. He holds a grape toward Keith's mouth. "Are you hungry?" He smiles. "I can feed you." He know he's heard that gods like that.  
"You can do what you want in the garden, I'll provide the water it needs." Keith watches as the food gets closer to his mouth, going slightly cross-eyed. He blushes slightly. "I'm not that hungry. I don't have to eat much."  
"I thought gods liked to be fed." Lance looks a bit sad then mumbles. "I can't do anything right." Before sighing and heading toward one of the windows and looking out at the sky. "Any kind of garden I want?" He ask timidly.  
Keith feels bad so he rushes after Lance and takes his wrist and eats the fruit still in his hand. His cheeks are a light pink. "Y-yeah." He coughs and back ups. He chews on the fruit a bit before swallowing it.  
Lance jumps a bit when Keith eats it so suddenly, obvious shock showing on his face.  "You didn't have to eat it if you didn't want to."  He swallows hard, nervous about messing this up too.  Then smiles when Keith agrees to the garden.  "When can I start?"  He asks excitedly.  "Do you have seeds?  Can I buy seeds?  Er, I don't have money who am I kidding.  How, where do I get the stuff for it?!"  His eyes light up like a child on christmas as he imagines the possibilities.  
"I have a few seeds but I don't have tools. What tools do you even need?" Keith looks into one of the drawers and pulls out seeds that he has collected from previous food offerings.  
Lance realizes rather suddenly that he doesn't know.  "My...hands?"  He laughs a bit.  "I've never gardened before, just always wanted a garden. "  He admits then looks to the seeds, oddly knowledgeable about which one is which.  "Ooo I almost have everything to grow a full vegetable garden."  He says excitedly then looks another of the seeds over.  "Are these morning glories?  I thought those were more appropriate for night gods since some only bloom at night."  He smiles and bows at Keith again.  "I..thank you so much again."  
"Stop thanking me. I literally had these just laying around. You're doing the hard work." He probably has the night growing flowers since people tend to think water is connected to the moon. It's not like he really need to sleep so night and day don't really matter to him.  
Lance isn't sure what to say so he just nods before heading out into the garden area and looking around in awe.  "Anywhere?"  He darts away from the shrine.  It probably looks like he's running away at first but after a little while, he finally turns around to look everything over then looks toward the sky, hunting for the sun and doing some mapping in his head.  Once done, he heads back toward the shrine, a bit slower this time while still keeping a close eye on the sun.  
Keith follows Lance outside. Before he could answer, Lance dashes away. Keith's chest tightens for a second before relaxing when Lance stops. He pretends that he felt nothing when Lance started to run. "The whole field is yours to play with," Keith says when Lance returns. The only thing he does outside is relax under the sun and sometimes messes with Shiro.  
Lance smiles brilliantly.  "I know you said not to but, thank you."  He goes to a spot and literally starts to rip a few lines of grass out with his hands before  looking back to the sky and taking deliberate steps away then dropping back down to start digging.  "Can we get more seeds?  We could grow peppers and rhubarb and  strawberries - oh and herbs to cook with!"  He gets more excited just thinking about it.  While talking he seems to be making an outline of where the garden will go, digging up the grass with his hands.  When it hits him he asked a fucking god for something else, Lance jolts upright and turns and bows to him again.  "I'm sorry!  I didn't mean...I shouldn't ask for anything more!  Oh my go - er, uh,"  He cuts himself off realizing the awkwardness of what he nearly said then clears his throat and just apologizes another long string of apologies.  
Keith huffs. "The farmers usually make give their offerings a week after your town so I'm sure they'll bring more seeds." He just completely ignores everything else, not caring that Lance was asking for food.  
Lance stops apologizing and just looks up at Keith, continually surprised by how he acts.  Looking confused, he sits up and looks at Keith with his head tilted.  "You know,"  He starts before turning back to the garden.  "You really don't act the way humans depict Gods. "  His hands grow increasingly dirty as he pulls up all the grass and weeds, tossing it all into a pile outside of where he plans to plant things.  Once his plot is all dirt, he looks around and finds a fist sized flatter rock and uses it to start loosening the dirt.  He is working hard enough that he's working up a sweat at this point but doesn't seem to be in a hurry to stop.  "Most Gods are depicted as, like, bitchy guys on thrones asking for shit.  But...you don't seem like that at all."  He says as he works  
"There is actual very few gods who ask for shit. Some gods would ask for things that interest them such as small animals or flowers." Keith makes it rain very lightly, cooling down Lance a bit.  
"Really?" Lance looks back at him in surprise then smiles up to the sky as it rains. He looks so adorably happy and can't hide that, for the first time in a long time, he really was. Laughing a bit, Lance stands up again and happily spins in the rain, needing the break more than he realized. "So," he starts after spinning a few times, "what interests you?"  
Keith can't help but let a ghost of a smile appear on his face while Lance being cute. It quickly disappears when Lance can see him. "Honestly... I haven't found anything yet. There are some flowers I like but nothing really calls to me."  
Lance frowns. "Really?" He looks honestly sad then looks back to the sky. "I've always liked the rain. And I've thought dahlias are beautiful." He says while smiling up to the sky. "Ironic I end up an offering to a rain god huh?" He looks back at Keith. "I'm going to help you find something you like as long as you keep me around, ok?"  
"Sure." Keith didn't really care to find his interest but he'll keep Lance around so long as Lance wants to stay.  
Lance smiles happily then goes back to tending the garden. "You know," he starts with a small laugh. "This is a far better day than I expected it to be." He finishes before going over to Keith to grabs seeds, pausing for a minute to play on the ran and wiggle his toes in the grass.  
Keith smiles softly and makes it rain a little harder.  
"You're the best.  Lance exclaims as the rain picks up and laughs while quickly snatching up the seeds and planting them then looks proudly at his little garden and sighs before starting to dance in the rain again, doing a more choreographed dance than just spinning this time.  
Keith just stands there and watches, smiling very slightly.  
Lance finally takes a deep breath and walks over to Keith, holding out his hands. "Join me." He asks in something between a question and a demand.  
"I don't really know how to dance," Keith says as he hesitantly takes Lance's hand.  
"That's fine. Just follow my lead." He takes one of Keith's hands and puts the other on his hip, so into just enjoying dancing that he forgets he’s touching a god. Leading Keith in a folk type dance, Lance laughs a bit. "That's it!"  
"I'll try," he mumbles as he tries to dance with Lance. His cheeks were red and hopes that Shiro or anyone else never sees him like this.  
Lance starts the dance slowly, showing Keith each step before starting to move more fluidly. He is a good dance instructor nowadays as he often trained younger dancers back at home. Once the two are moving a bit more in unison, Lance starts to hum a melody for them to dance too.  
Keith is really trying not to mess up. His cheeks feel hot despite it still raining.  
Lance laughs. "Calm down, you're doing great!" He reassures. "It's easier when there is actual music playing. I promise." His voice isn't the best, but it isn't bad either as he sings a happy folk song for them to dance to.  
Keith relaxes a little and tries to just have fun.  
When he relaxes, Lance has more fun as well, he separates and starts to add a bit more flair to the moves then takes a deep breath when the song apparently comes to an end.  "That was fun."  He says playfully.  
Keith cracks a very small smile, "yeah."  
Lance suddenly pales when he realizes what he just did.  He touches his hands together and  gets very quiet.  "Did...I..."  He covers his face for a second, turning red despite the color draining from his face.  "I meant no disrespect!  I shouldn't have done that."  From years of being told how to act around a god, Lance starts to panic.  
Keith frowns when Lance starts to panic. "Hey, I agreed it was fun. There isn't anything wrong with what you did." He doesn't touch Lance, thinking it might make it worse.  
"A-are you sure?"  Lance holds his arms, hugging himself tight and taking a few deep breaths.  "We were always taught never to touch a god.  Especially..."  He looks to the ground with a pained smile.  "Especially those like me."  
Keith squints his eyes a little. "Why would they say that? If someone is able to touch me, it's because I allowed them to. It's not easy to touch one of us we do not wish for it."  
Lance just swallows and bows his head but doesn't exactly answer the question. "I suppose that makes sense."  He responds then looks up with a well practiced, but still fake, smile.  "I don't imagine gods are exactly caught off guard by  lowly humans very often."  He says then laughs  
"You might be the first one," he lightly teases. He can tell it's fake but doesn't say anything.  
Lance seems almost pained by that somehow as his smile falters.  "I'm sorry then."  He apologizes then sighs and looks back inside then down to his hands.  "Do you mind if I get clean?"  His voice is quiet, more afraid now to say something wrong.  "Th- then would it be alright if we get something more substantial for me to eat?"  
"Go ahead. You don't have to ask permission for such things, you a free to go anywhere you wish." Keith needs to figure out a way to be on equal grounds with this human.  
Lance shakes his head then looks at Keith with a baffled smile.  "I...don't understand this."  He admits before looking at his hands as if they were still filthy.  "This...is your shrine.  You are a god.  Why...are you so nice to me?"  His hands return to his arms, hugging himself tight again.  
"Because I don't care that I'm a god?" He raised an eyebrow. "You humans are the ones who decided that we are above you. Probably with the influence of one or two gods," he mumbles the last part.  
"You should care."  He says warmly.  "People love and respect you.  I find it strange you don't see yourself above me."  Lance laughs nervously then quietly adds.  "Even other humans are above me anymore."  He sighs then shakes his head before turning to walk away.  
"The only one that can truly make yourself below anyone is yourself," Keith says as he watches Lances leave.  
Lance flinches.  "You obviously don't know human nature well."  He responds only loud enough for Keith to maybe hear.  Then, he hurries into his room to shower.  Not wanting to face the god...or maybe more so - not wanting the god to face him, Lance stays in the shower longer than he needs, just sitting under the water.  
Keith feels bad. He really doesn't know humans as well as he should. He scratches the back on his neck. He doesn't know what to say to make Lance feel better. He paces around the main room for a bit. Maybe he should just talk it out with Lance.  
Lance finally turns off the shower, a bit worried about being too needy with his use of water then grabs a towel and wraps up before sitting in his hammock.  He looks around and isn't entirely sure if there are other clothes but doesn't feel like putting wet clothes back on so he just sits in the hammock, wrapped in towels and looks to the ceiling.  
Keith walks over to Lance's room and hesitates. He doesn't know if he should bother Lance, if it would make it any better or worse.  
Lance hears Keith, accustom to listening for people and sighs.  "You can come in.  This is your shrine afterall."  His voice is quiet, still in a towel as he sits almost cocooned in the cloth as he's curled into a ball  
Keith slowly opens the door and enter. "But this is your room and you deserve privacy." He then notices that Lance has yet to get into clothes again. "There is a few clothes in the drawers, I can not guarantee that fit perfectly though."  
"Ok."  Lance responds simply.  "Thank you."  He doesn't move yet.  "Do Gods really...I don't know...not see others as lesser beings?"  His question feels oddly loaded and he doesn't face Keith as he speaks.  Whether this is out of shame or something else it's hard to say.  
"Most gods do not truly believe that humans are lesser beings," Keith confirms.  
Lance laughs bitterly.  "They're obviously wrong then."  He sighs then carefully lowers one leg, making sure he doesn't reveal more than he wants to, so that he can sway the hammock.  "Humans is dirty, crude and judgmental creatures."  Not thinking about the fact that he likely has bruises from where he'd been scolded for fighting against being an offering, Lance continues to push the hammock.  "Talking to you is...so different.  I like it."  
Keith sees the bruises but doesn't comment. "Who says that we aren't similar?" He pushes down his anger for another time.  
"Me and you?"  Lance looks lazily toward him.  "Ask any human.  I promise they will say you are far superior to me."  He turns his gaze back to the ceiling.  "And most would consider themselves above me but below you."  With a sigh, Lance unwraps one of his arms, actually looking himself over this time before groaning at the shadow of new bruises.  "That's just how humans are."  
"You only see gods from a humans point of view. You don't see what our day to day lives," Keith didn't want to get too in detail if he didn't need to.  
"That's fine I suppose."  He nods and shrugs.  "I only know what I've been taught.  It's not like I had time to do much studying of gods."  With a small laugh, he turns and looks at Keith.  "It's not like I expected to meet one, let alone live under the same roof as one."  He tries to smile  a bit but can't help looking kind of sad.  
Keith sighs and starts to take his shirt off. This is probably the fastest way to get his point across but also probably the worse way. He turns his back to Lance to show the scars on his back. A few burn marks and some blade scars. "Gods are just humans with powers. That's all we are."  
Lance turns to Keith and tenses up when he sees him taking his shirt off.  Fear flashes in his eyes for a bit until Keith reveals his scars to which Lance grabs his towel, securing it into place before walking up to Keith.  His hands gently reach out to touch them, as if they could be fake.  "I'm so sorry."  His voice is weak when he speaks.  "I didn't know."  He nearly cries on Keith's behalf, barely keeps himself from having tears fall.  Not caring to think about what would happen if Keith didn't appreciate the hug, Lance grabs him.  It's an awkward hug, as Lance typically only hugged the younger dancers when they were scared, but he hoped it portrayed its meaning anyway.

"Of course you didn't know. You don't live seeing gods on a daily basis." Keith is slightly tense under the hug, not used to being hugged by anyone other than Shiro. He doesn't stop Lance or try to move away. "Who says that we aren't similar?" he asks again with a weaker voice. He hates his scars. He hates remembering how he got each one.  
Lance lets go, knowing full well neither of them are exactly comfortable with the closeness.  "You didn't have to show me that."  He bows his head.  "I'm really sorry."  His voice is strained but he tries to smile when he walks back to face Keith.  Saying nothing, he grabs Keith's hand and runs his fingers along one of the tattoos so he can feel the scar.  "I understand it's not easy to do."  He voices quietly, assuming Keith will realize all of his tattoos are hiding equally as obnoxious scars.  
Keith instantly understand and tries not to let his boiling anger show on his face. He will defiant torture that town.  
Lance swallows hard, mistaking his anger as just tension.  He hugs Keith again, trying to comfort him as best he knows how.  "I'm sorry for...all of this."  Lance says quietly.  "I...know my words me nothing but I'll be here for you.  As...a friend rather than an offering i-if you would like that?"  His words are uncertain.  Has he ever asked anyone if they wanted to be his friend before? The thought accidentally makes a sad laugh escape his lips.  
"Are you sure you're okay with being friends with me?" he asks, not sure what to make out of that laugh. His only friends is Shiro, Pidge and possibly Shay.  
"Why wouldn't I be?"  Lance asks.  "You've been nothing but kind to me since meeting me.  It's not something I'm exactly use to and...I..." He struggles to finish his thought.  "I think we could both use it."  Finally, lance walks over to the drawer to pull out clothes and is thankful to find one outfit similar to his dance attire.  He can't help but wonder where the outfits came from. Bowing before he goes to change, Lance darts away then comes back insanely quickly  as he adjusts himself then grabs his sash.  He is thankful he has this, it probably shows in the smile on his face as he wraps it around his waist again.  
"If you're really okay with it, I would like to be friends," Keith says almost shyly when Lance comes back. Since Lance chose that set to wear, he makes a mental note to get more of that type of clothing for Lance, along with more sashes.  
Noticing Keith look him over, Lance curtsies with a smile.  "After a while, dance clothes just became more comfortable that anything else I've worn."  He admits then shimmies his hips to make his sash with the coins jingle a bit.  "And this was a gift.  I never got many of those so it makes me happy."  He admits before walking over to Keith and bowing respectfully, a habit that will surely be hard for him to break.  "I would love to be your friend."  He admits with a smile.  "I...no, it really means a lot to me."  
He blushes when Lance shows off. "W-would you like to get clothes from town?" He coughs to hide his stutter.  
"I would rather get food."  He laughs a little then scratches his head.  "And my...photo album."  Lance adds as he looks off.  "Though, more clothes might be a good idea.  At least one or two more.  I will happily clean my clothes.  And you could dress me as you see fit too."  Lance seems blissfully unfazed by the blushing as it is something he's come to ignore with his job.  Though, he does note the cough and that clearly worries him.  "Are you thirsty?  I could go find you...whatever you drink."  
"Oh, no. I'm okay." Keith shakes his head. "Maybe when we get back... If you would like to leave now."  
"Should we?"  Lance grabs his arm and looks to the ground nervously.  "I..mean...going back into town after being an offering...?"  
"We don't have to if it makes you uncomfortable." Keith wants to pat Lance's back but stops himself from doing so.  
"I do, but I..." He looks back up to Keith and exhales and looks to be biting his tongue.  
"I will go with you," Keith says," No one will say or do anything in my presence."  
Lance smiles at Keith and nods.  "If you will come with me then I'll be fine."  His smile grows more comfortable.  "I really appreciate it."  He adds then starts to move in for a hug, having enjoyed the closeness, but physically stops himself.  
Keith sees this and sighs. He holds out his arms wide and hugs Lance. "It's okay to hug me," he says softly.  
Lance smiles then moves in and hugs him again.  "Thank you."  He says so quietly it's almost a whisper.  "This...all of it...it feels like a dream."  With a laugh, he tightens his grip on Keith.  "I wish I had known.  I feel bad for being so rude now."  
"It's okay. I prefer it when people don't know about it," Keith says quietly. "And I probably should watch the humans more."  
"Ugh. Don't."  Lance groans then finally pulls away.  "Humans really are garbage.  They will only want to make you seclude yourself."  He pauses.  "Except children.  They are sweet and innocent."  A warmth comes to his face then that shows his care for the younger dancers that lived in his home.  "But humanity overall is garbage." He brushes himself off then stands tall.  "Do I at least look like fancy trash?"  
Keith tries to play along and says,"Golden trash."  
Lance  smiles then hits a pose with his hip out and 'tosses his non existent long hair' then laughs.  "Damn right."  Shaking his head, Lance walks up to Keith and looks toward town.  "So, do you think they will be more horrified or terrified that their god and recent offering show up in town already?"  
"Hmn... Don't those two words mean the same thing?" Keith raises an eyebrow and looks at Lance. He leads the way back to town slowly.  
"Uh...yeah probably."  Lance scratches his head.  "I'm not the greatest with words sometimes."  He laughs then shrugs.  "I just wonder if they will be scared or scoff that I'm back."  
"Either way, they can't harm you." He pats Lance's shoulder lightly. "I'll protect you. Are.... Are you okay if I have to talk as if you're my... Slave?"  
Lance smiles up to him happily then nods.  "I am use to it."  He says then seems shocked that he admitted that aloud.  "Not from you.  Er...no...it's fine."  
"O... Ok." Keith isn't too sure how to react to that. Luckily they were getting really close to the town. Soon he will know who to let this anger out on. That... sounds really bad. He almost laughs to himself.  
Lance  looks up to Keith and bows his head.  Well versed in how  a slave should follow their master, Lance takes five steps back, trailing Keith's footsteps and avoiding eye contact as they near town.  "Thank you for this again."  He voices quietly.  "Oh, should I not speak or refer to you specifically?"  His voice already sounds trained, just in case someone is too near.  
Keith shrugs, not really knowing how slaves typically are told to act. "I guess just keep quiet?" he responds back softly right as they enter the town.  
Nodding while keeping his head down, Lance clears his throat.  He speaks in quiet, careful words.  "Three roads to the left, two right.  Mine is the smaller home with the door kicked in."  He hops Keith can hear him but the rest of town cannot.  
Most of the town, however, is in a roar anyway.  They managed to give an offering the god accepted and were celebrating that.  It takes the town a bit before the realize how it is that has come to visit.  And it's honestly because of one of the young dancers calling, "It's Lance!"  To which several of the young kids, dressed similarly to Lance jump and wave to him until a couple of more motherly types pull them away and shush them.  Then whispers move through the boisterous crowd like a wildfire.  
Keith glances at them from the corner of his eyes, trying to seem more "godly". He carefully watches for anyone who glares or snickers in Lance's direction. He follows Lance's instructions and finds the house. "Go gather your things," he orders Lance," You have at most 10 minutes." He hopes that is enough time for Lance to find the things he listen back at the shrine. He turns his back to the door to watch everyone who has gathered to see what is happening.  
Lance nods obediently then  darts inside to grab his things.  He didn't have much, ten minutes is honestly being generous but what Keith doesn't know won't hurt him.  
The town watches Lance and Keith head to his home, some of the children still want to talk to Lance, quite obviously.  One even darts out toward Keith shouting something among the lines of "Please be nice to lance Mr. God person!"  Before he gets yanked back by a fretting adult who pretends (horribly mind you) that they aren't watching.  A couple of townsfolk look honestly furious seeing the god having finally chosen that man to be a good offering after all the better offerings given. They may be whispering about it rather heated between themselves.  
However, from inside, there are suddenly sounds of shuffling and something shatters.  Lance hasn't made a sound so it's possible he just managed to knock something down in his hurry.  Though it is suspicious that one of the preteen looking dancers look horrified when then walk up to see the god outside the home and Lance nowhere to be seen.  
Keith makes mental note of every person with a very strong reaction. At this rate, he might have to punish the whole town since it was hard to only pick a few. He looks at the pre-teen that just walked out. The expression on the child's face makes his hand tingle. "Is something the matter?" he asks the preteen. He heart starts to race and all he can think about it Lance. He knows of the possibilities that could happen but he doesn't want to rush in and make Lance seem more of a fool to the town.  
The boy, having been well trained, just as Lance, says nothing and merely shakes his head. But his eyes scream otherwise and for a moment, he is clearly struggling to decide whether to speak.  "It-"  He starts in the same trained tone that Lance uses, "It is to be noted that Lance's house was due to be emptied by my lord." As he speaks, a crack can be barely heard from inside.  The boy states then looks to him, eyes pleading.  "If you wish your offering to stay in pristine condition, it may be wise to...verify he has come at your will."  He speaks vaguely when he sees the momentary worry in Keith's eyes. Another crack is heart and the boy flinches instinctively at it's sound then once he has said his words, the boy bows deeply then back away again.  
Inside, Lance had been grabbing up clothes, shoving them all into a burlap sack he had and searching for his photo album.  In the haste this morning, he had knocked it under his bed.  When he first hears footsteps, Lance looks up and goes to comment on the time.  Not sure how he should react - in case someone else has come in with him - Lance turns and is instead facing the house lord.  
"You ran away from the god?"  He growls.  "He accepted you and you ran away."  Keeping his voice low, a method he has found far more intimidating over the years, the lord grabs the nearest item and tosses it at Lance.  "You ungrateful heathen.  And you dare show your face here again?"  
"I didn't run."  
Not believing Lance, the Lord grabs his whip and quickly hits him once.  "Liar.  You've always been a liar."  
"I didn't run.  He's outside."  Lance responds, trying to remain calm.  Keith is out there.  If ten minutes pass, he will surely come inside.  He takes a deep breath when he sees the whip coming toward him again.  
Keith stomps into the house. He will definitely make the owner here suffer. Once he is out of view from the people outside, he rushed to where the noise is coming from. "You dare touch my property?!" He growls at the whip holder. If he was a different God, his glare would probably kill the person. His hand tenses, ready to attack.  
Lance opens his eyes and looks to Keith before quickly grabbing his items and taking his place behind him.  
The lord of the house stands up tall and puts his whip back before bowing, almost unfazed.  "Many apologies My Lord,  I assumed our rat had escaped you."  His voice is calm and he is frustratingly polite once in the presence of someone stronger than him.  "I meant no harm to you or...your things. Merely wished to keep a rat in its place."  
Behind Keith, Lance nervously grabs Keith's shirt, like a frightened child would to hide behind its mother.  
"I do not appreciate you calling my slave a filthy rodent. I should have your hands cut off." His glare hardens  and his anger boils even more. This is the perfect person to let some anger out on but he can't murder in front of Lance and this person deserves long suffering.  
With another bow, the man seems baffled. "M- many apologies." He attempts to keep his fear under wraps.  
"Might I offer you penance for my grievance?" In his world, everyone can be bought, so why not a god too?  
Lance holds his things tighter, feeling Keith's body tensing. "S-sorry to have caused trouble." Lance hopes to calm the air a bit. He hadn't meant to anger Keith by bringing him here.  
He holds out a hand, palm facing Lance to calm him down and to show that he is has calmed down a bit. "I don't need your penance," he snears. With his other hand, he breaks the whip in half. "Be grateful that I do not harm in front of children." He glances at Lance then says," We're leaving." He starts to leave the building, casting one more glare at the owner on the way.  
Lance flinches when Keith grabs the whip but exhales in relief when it is broken. "Thank you." Lance says quietly.  
The house lord is silent, clearly baffled by the God's actions but doesn’t argue.  
Once outside, Lance swallows before quietly asking. "May I say farewell?" He tries not to sound broken asking the question. His eyes look to a group of dancers, all who look relieved to see Lance is fine.  
Keith looks at the group. "You may," he says. He wishes Lance could have said goodbye on better terms. He might need to ask one of the other gods to help the kids in this town.  
Lance literally drops all of things to dart over to them. As quickly as they can, the group of boys run to Lance. Some look hardly older than seven or eight. The oldest, who trails behind a bit more calmly than the others, looks only a couple years younger than Lance. Two of the younger boys jump on him while two more hug him tight.  
"Will you be back?" One of the boys who looks maybe ten asks. To which Lance shakes his head.  
"Probably not Leo." He says calmly, wearing a smile for them.  
"Is the god guy nice?" Says the boy who had mildly threatened Keith to "be nice to lance" earlier.  
"Yes. He really is." Lance admits with a warm smile.  
"Who will teach us to dance now?" Whines a boy who might be a bit older than Leo.  
"Mateo will teach you all. He's the same age as me." Lance looks around. "Where is...is he with Lord Millian?"  
The boys nod but the youngest pouts.  "But Mateo isn’t as good as you!"  
Lance laughs and shushed him. "Don’t tell him that!" He sighs and rustled a few of the boy's hair before standing. The two youngest still cling to him so Lance laughs. "Come on Rin, go see mama." He laughs while lifting the boy down and pushing him toward his mother. "You too Raul." He hugs the youngest when he pick him up. "I have to go. You all be good." He continues smiling as he backs away and picks up his things.  
Once he does, Lance instantly starts walking away, looking back only once to wave at them all before walking a bit faster. He refuses to let them see him sad.  
As Keith watches, he wishes more and more that Lance and these kids could of had better lives. After being able to really see what happens in this town, he will really watch what happens here. He thinks of a few idea on how to punish the head person for these dancers. Once Lance is done, he continues to lead the way back to their home.  
Lance follows in silence. He holds his things close and keeps his distance from Keith, both out of ploy to trick the town and fear of breaking from being to close. His shoulders feel heavy as he tries to stay calm.  
"I'm sorry for this." He forces out with a crackling voice once they are outside of the town. "I shouldn't have asked to return."  
Keith sighs and combs a hand through his hair. "Don't feel sorry. It's not your fault they act like that." He didn't want to Lance with other reason for going to visit the town. "At least you got to say goodbye to those kids."  
Lance swallows hard, trying to stay positive, he does what he's always done and nods with a forced smile. "I am thankful for that." His voice cracks once so he quickly looks back down and gets quiet again. Then after a minute, he adds. "Thank you again."  
They enter the shrine. "You don't have to hold them back," he says softly, referring to the tears he knows Lance is holding in.  
Lance holds his things closer and clenches his eyes shut. "But I am an ugly crier." He tries to sound playful but it just sounds desperate instead. "And I'm golden trash." He laughs weakly. "I don’t want to ruin that." His eyes open again and he forces a smile on his face.  
"You can cry in your room if it makes you feel better. Everyone has to cry at some point, even golden trash."  
Lance laughs at this and nods. "At least gold doesn't tarnish from water easily, hm?" Then he takes steps toward his room before breaking a bit too soon. His tears start to fall so he just turns the corner and slides down the wall, holding his photo album close. He tries to stay quiet, hoping that Keith hadn't seen him.  
Keith stands in the same spot, watching the hallway with Lance's room. He sighs again before slowly heading towards his own room. He should probably wait a few days before doing anything to that head person, just to keep them on edge for a bit.  
Lance calms himself and puts his things away then wanders the hall to look for Keith. When he doesnt see him in the main area, he goes back to where the food was and grabs a bowl of fruit, eating a bit more of it before stepping outside and looking at his garden. He snacks on the food slowly and stares to the dirt patch as if he will be able to see the plants grow. Secretly, he wants to see Keith again but he feels had for taking up so much of the God's attention.  
Using the crystal ball he got from Shiro, he quickly checks on Shay's farm. They seem fine for now. Having to interact with that one human makes him remember of the god who likes to torture him. He can't do anything at the moment but he really wants to. Maybe he should contact Shiro in order to talk about all this.  
Feeling increasingly lonely, Lance finally reenters the shrine and clears his throat. "Keith?" He calls, almost too quietly. Maybe if he isn't too loud the god won't hear him. At the same time, Lance could really use the company so he wanders a bit further then calls for Keith again.  
Keith hears his name and steps out of his room. He walks down the hall a bit before running into Lance. He is a little surprised to see that Lance has wondered further than his room. "Do you need something?"  
"I-" lance is a deer in headlights. He wants company but feels needy saying so. "J-just..." Looking down he finally whines. "Just lonely. I'm sorry. I didnt mean to bother you." He swallows and sighs then scratches his head and waves a hand. "I'm fine."  
"What do you do when your lonely?" Keith asks, not really sure what others do. Keith never feels lonely... he thinks. He could just be so used to being alone already that he is numb to that emotion.  
"I never usually had a chance to be lonely." Lance admits then looks to Keith and sighs. "I just like being around...someone." He hadn’t let go of his photo album so he looks down to it then shakes his head. "Its ok though. I am sorta tired after everything." He swallows then bites tongue before asking. "Do you have aloe by any chance?"  
"Aloe? A plant? Let's go see." Keith leads back to the kitchen area. He isn't well informed about plants, especially if it's not Shay who gives it to him.  
Lance nods and follows. Once they get to the area where the plants are, Lance sees an aloe plant and sighs in relief before snapping one of the branches off. "Can you help?" He asks, face tinting pink. "It really helps the welts go down." Motioning to his back, Lance smiles, oddly embarrassed about admitting he has welts from being whipped. "It’s hard for me to do well."  
Keith feels bad for not being able to make it to Lance in time to prevent any injuries. "Yeah. Do I just rub the clear part on in?" He asks as he takes the branch.  
Lance nods with a smile. "If you don’t mind." He gently rests his photo album on the nearby table and pulls his shirt over his head.  
He gently places the clear part of the plant over the starting point of one of the welts. "Do I hold it here or wipe across?"  
"Just...wipe it down the welt." Lance flinches a little when the plant touches him. "Thank you again."  
Keith just hums, not really taking the thanks. He gently slides the aloe branch across the welt.  
Lance shivers then sighs a bit. "Thank you." He repeats once the welts have been covered. Not wanting to put his shirt back on yet, Lance just holds it. "Sorry to have bothered you."  
"No. It's okay." Keith is just not used to having company for longer than a few hours. How does Shiro do this? Is he supposed to spend a lot of time with Lance?  
"Are you sure?" Lance looks hopeful then quickly turns away at something he thought of. "I don't want you to feel like I'm so needy. Just...I can see you in the morning, ok?"  
"I don't... mind being here if you want me to." Keith scratches the back of his head. "I'm not used to... Staying around other so it will take me time to get used to this."  
Lance laughs. "Aren't we the awkward pair?" He says before turning to face Keith with a small smile. "A hermit and a social butterfly." Turning back to the ground, his smile fades a bit. "Do you...mind just...no. Nevermind. Its ok." He looks up again and turns to bow to Keith. "Good night."  
Keith opens his mouth to try and stop Lance  but decides against it. "Ah- Ok." He backs away in order to give Lance space to leave.  
Lance smiles, grabbing up his things, then heads to his room. He drops everything on the dresser then hunts for a blanket. Once he finds it, he climbs into the hammock and wraps himself up, covering his whole body before silently crying himself to sleep. When morning comes, his eyes are heavy so he just wraps himself tighter and curls up in the center of the hammock. He wanted to sleep more but his body wouldn’t let him, too emotional, too hungry and too trained to sleep past sunrise. However, he refuses to be seen so soon. Especially as he knows his eyes will be swollen and the welts will likely be more red, if not purple, today.  
Keith sits on his throne. He's been up and about all night, especially since he doesn't really need sleep. As the sun rises, he is surprised to see Shay and her partner running up to him. Both were carrying basket that were almost overflowing with food and seeds.  
Hunk sees Keith and instantly starts to greet him. "Good morning lord k-" he looks to say and she reminds him of Keith's name. "Keith! We come to offer a trade!" He sets his basket down and looks around, hoping to see Lance. Spying the cut chains, he isn't sure whether to feel worried or relieved.  
"A trade?" Keith raises an eyebrow. Shay also puts down the basket she is holding.  
"Yes. We offer a trade for your offering from the town, Lance," Shay answers with her soft voice. She knows that seeing the broken chains in a good thing. Keith would never harm a living offering.  
"He's a good friend and I know we could have him help on the farm. People wouldn’t think anything of it." Hunk claps his hands together in a prayer pose and smiles. "Where, uh, where is he by the way?" He doesn't mean to sound so worried. "He's usually up and about by now."  
"He is in his room the last time I checked." Keith really did peek in just to make sure Lance was okay. His mental excuse is that he was walking by. "Shall I go get him?"  
"Could you?!" Hunk asks excitedly then grabs Shay's arm. "Oh man I would really appreciate it." As if to further his point, hunk grabs a loaf of bread. "This is my specialty there’s  a couple loaves here. So good, if I can toot my own horn for a minute. And I-" he cuts himself off when he gets "a look" from Shay. "Yes please, lord Keith, sir."  
Keith gets off his chair and walks to Lance's room. "Lance, a friend of yours is here," he says through the closed door.  
\--  
Shay rubs Hunk's arm to help calm him down. "Everything will be fine," she whispers. She is however slightly worried. She knows Keith doesn't eat a whole lot and Keith keeping a living offering is completely new. Maybe Keith finally got attached.(edited)  
Lance sits up slowly and walks over to the door, still bundled in his blanket and opens the door. "A friend?" He looks confused and tries to rub his still red eyes. "And you can come in whenever. Its your shrine, remember?" His voice is heavy with some feeling he can't quite place as he refuses to keep looking at Keith.  
\--  
"Yeah?" Hunk swallows nervously. "His town was in an uproar yesterday. And Lance is so social..." He takes a deep breath. "But ill believe you if you say its ok."  
\--  
"A farmer who knows you has come to help you,"Keith says, not giving away that he knows Shay.  
\--  
Shay smiles and continued to rub Hunk's arm till Keith comes back with Lance.  
\--  
"A farmer who..." Lance suddenly perks up with a huge smile and drops his blanket before darting toward the entrance. "Hunk!" He shouts when he sees him. Grabbing his friend in a huge hug, lance laughs a little. "Oh my gosh how are you buddy?!"  
"I'm suppose to ask you that!" Hunk hugs him tight. Then lance looks over and grabs Shay in a hug too. "How are you Shay?!" He jumps back looking at his two friends with excitement on his face.  
Keith stands a bit away, watching them. His chest clenches but he doesn't understand why. With this reaction, he should probably take the trade. Would Lance want that?  
Shay glances at Keith. She sees his conflicted expression and gets a little worried for the god.  
Lance stands back then notices the baskets of food. His eyes go wide and he looks back to Hunk and Shay. Then he turns and looks at Keith. "Can I have some? Please?" He bows, feeling the gnawing in his stomach. When he does this, he hopes Hunk and Shay won’t comment on the new welts.  
"Go ahead. It's all yours," Keith says. He is a little happy that Lance will still talk to him with his friends here.  
"Thank you!" He grabs a loaf of bread and a block of cheese and happily starts to eat. "How did you guys know we'd need food?" Lance says between bites."Weird fifth, er sixth sense thing?"  
Hunk watches him eat the food and cant help but wonder if he ate yesterday. "We, uh, well that is for Keith."  
Keith didn't really want Lance to leave, nor did he want Lance to know that Hunk and Shay brought the food as a trade. "They came to see if you wanted to go live with them."  
"You'd let me live you you guys?!" He nearly chokes on his food he's so excited.  
Hunk nods excitedly. "Y-you wanna come back with us? Maybe?" Hunk is speaking to Lance but looking at Keith.    
Lance takes a couple more bites in silence. He isn't sure what to say at this point. Living with Hunk and Shay, being part if a town again might be nice but...he feels...bad? Is that the best way to describe things?  He looks back up to Hunk then to Keith. "B-but I was an offering..." He decides to stick with the "appropriate" reason he should stay.  
"You're not shackled to this place. You could have left your first day here, you still have the option to leave." Keith’s chest only tightens more as he speaks.  
Lance looks back to the ground silently cursing Keith for being so nice. If he’d been how he imagined, there would be no decision. But, now he has a room of his own. And a dance room. And his own garden. And that was just one day. He puts the food down onto the top of the pile and gnaws on his lip.  
"If-" he starts then nods to Hunk and Shay before walking up to Keith. "If I...stay c-could I visit them o-or have them visit me?" He doesn't make eye contact as he speaks and talks quiet enough that only Keith would be able to hear him.  
"I do not control who comes and goes," Keith say, hoping it gets his point across. He wants Lance to decide for himself. This shrine is too big for him anyways so he wouldn't even care if Lance wanted to have Hunk and Shay live here.  
Lance hugs Keith again. "Thank you." He says quietly. Then he hurries back to Hunk and Shay.  
"I'm going to stay here." He says finally. With a smile, he thinks back to his day yesterday. "I made a promise and I intend to keep it." He adds with a sweet smile.  
"You- you're sure?" Hunk asks, obviously a mix of surprised and relieved that Shay was right.  
Lance nods. "I think I will like it here." He says with a grin then touches his hips. "Lots of room to dance and no creeps to ruin it." Then he claps. "Plus I have to tend to my garden now!" He says with a proud smile.  
"Your garden?" Shay asked. She knew Keith would not harm Lance but to spoil him with all this?  
Lance nods. "I'm going to grow food. I dug the plot yesterday and planted what Keith had." He is absolutely beaming just thinking about it. "I even have a dance room, with my aerial silks so I don't have to worry about getting rusty." His smile grows warm. "Plus I said I would teach Keith how to use the silks." He laughs a bit. "Just like lessons back home right?" He speaks to Shay as Hunk is something between awd and ashamed that he had been so worried after hearing these stories. "But please don’t think that means I don’t appreciate the offer! I promise to visit!"  
"Is there anything you would like for us to bring? We can bring your favorites tomorrow," Shay offered. Keith moved back to his chair. He was glad Lance decided to stay but it's a bit embarrassing to hear these stories.  
Lance shakes his head. "This is more than enough." He laughs a bit then picks up the cheese again.  "I am a sucker for cheese though." His smile stays warm as he hugs them both with the half eaten block of cheese in one hand still. "It was still super nice of you to come." He says, oblivious to the fact that Shay was usually the one to come. Looking at the grapes, Lance laughs when he remembers Keith's reaction to being fed. It surely seems out of place. But he grabs a bundle and walks up to Keith with a smile. "Hungry?" He snickers. Despite only being there for a day, he seems to be somewhat over his distance barrier already as he's almost on Keith's throne to playfully throw a grape at him.  
"I'll be sure to bring more cheese next time," Shay says with a smile. When Lance brings over the grapes, he blushes and lightly glares. It's worse that there is others watching. He opens his mouth slightly, waiting for Lance to feed him.  
Lance smiles and wiggles excitedly. He playfully tosses one of the grapes. It misses so he laughs harder. "Ok, ok I can do this," he says before picking another one and trying again. This one makes it so he dies a dramatic, but silly cheer.  
"Is...that normal?" Hunk asks when he watches them interact. He wasn't sure but he always kinda imagined being a god's offering would be...different?  
Keith flinches when the grape hits him but keeps his mouth open. When blushes more when the grape makes it in. He eats the grape as he watches Lance.  
"I don't think so?" Shay isn't sure since she has never seen any Gods interacting with their human offerings. Sometimes the human servants would be the ones to  get the offerings from her.  
Lance is super happy that Keith eats the grape, he looks around, finding the one that missed and picks it up, polishes it on his pants then eats it.  He turns back to Hunk and Shay and bounces back to them. "Did you want to hang out or do you have to do the farming thing?" He asks then looks back at Keith, picks a grape and throws it at him without warning.  
"We can stay for a little bit," Shay answers while looking at Hunk, knowing he would like to stay to hang out with Lance.  
On instinct Keith catches it with his mouth.  Once realizing what he did, he blushes even more as he covers his mouth and cheeks with a hand. He looks away and hopes Lance doesn't see his reaction.  
Lance watches Keith and just laughs, mistaking the action for just trying to keep the grape in his mouth. "Nice catch." He teases before taking another grape for himself.  
Looking back at an obviously surprised (or perhaps confused is the better word) hunk and Shay, lance smiles. "Wanna see my room and stuff?!" He says chipperly then takes a few more bites of the bread. "Gosh this is so good. I was starving." He admits.  
"I wanna go see!" Hunk exclaimed. He loves it when Lance shows him things.  
Lance excitedly grabs him and leads him toward the bedroom, babbling about how cool it is. Once inside he hops into the hammock and grins. "I have a hammock!!" He exclaims excitedly.  
"You love hammocks! This god isn't as scary as I thought." Hunk rubbed the back of his neck.  
"I know, right?" He says with a laugh. "I feel kinda bad now for being so rude when I first saw him." Lance looks guilty.  
Hunk hugs Lance. "If you were rude to him and he still gave you all this, he has forgiven you already. No need to feel bad. He hasn't asked anything of you, has he?" Hunk asks, making sure Keith wasn't secretly a pervert.  
"You really think so?" Lance hugs Hunk back. "I hope so. I feel bad since I can't really do anything for him." He pulls back and thinks. "He asked me to clean my dance room. But it wasn’t dirty?" He thinks more. "And he asked me for names of people who were cruel to me?" He says with more than a hint of confusion in his voice.

\--

Back in the main area, Shay walks up to Keith. "I'm surprised to see you took an offering." She admits. "Even more so that you seem to have bonded so quickly."  
"He convinced me that if I keep him, the town would stop offering me more things. Plus... He's like me," he mumbles the last part. Through previous interactions, Shay has an idea of what Keith has been through.  
"Hopefully he's right about the offerings." She laughs warmly. "I know you would like that." She debates her next words, choosing them carefully. "He has been through a lot. It will certainly make bonding easier...but..." She smirks. "A garden and a dance room? No wonder he wants to stay."  
Keith blushes and scratches the back of his head. "He wanted things to do," he tried to defend himself.  
At Keith's reaction Shay laughs a bit then nods. "Uh huh. Well I'm sure he's thankful." She sits down and decides to have a handful of the offering they brought.  "Is there anything you want to know about humans, or Lance - I’ve heard plenty of stories from Hunk ironically- that you’d like to know before we go?"

\--

Hunk is surprised. Keith asked for names of people who were mean to Lance? That only means one thing. He smiles and hugs his friend. "Keith is awesome. I'm so happy that you're happy."  
Lance happily accepts the hug but is a but confused. "I mean, he does seem pretty awesome huh?" He says with a sigh then looks at Hunk with an odd expression. "Its weird though...he's pretty but blushes a lot."  
"He blushes a lot? Blushing is just from being embarrassed in general." Hunk pants his friend's back.  
"But why should a god be embarrassed?" Lance shakes his head and shoves his hands out. "He's a god so it's not like he did anything to be embarrassed about!"  
"Shay says he is always alone so I bet he's embarrassed since he's not used to having company."  
"Yeah that’s probably it. Maybe I should invite him to do something? So he can get use to company?" Lance hasn't dealt with shy people before.

\--

"Umm... Lance seems to get lonely easy... How do I help him?" Keith asks hesitantly. It's weird asking advice from anyone other than Shiro.  
"Lance gets lonely?" She repeats. "I guess that does make sense given his previous living." Shay. Still not as comfortable with Keith as Lance apparently is, keeps a comfortable distance. "You spend time with him. Talk with him or do something with him. It’s pretty easy."  
"How many things can you do with another?" He mumbles, not fully expecting an answer but Keith honestly doesn't know. He scrunches his eyebrows together in thought.  
"Well, I know Lance likes to sing, dance, do yoga, he loves talking...in general. Perhaps play games. Sit together and watch the stars or the clouds." Shay sighs. "If you aren’t sure...I'm sure you can just ask him too."  
Keith humms, thinking how that would all work out.  
"Well, why don’t you go see him?" Shay asks. "He obviously likes you since he wants to stay." She stands up and brushes herself off. "We should be going anyway. Cows to tend today." She laughs a bit. "Especially since our offering will likely involve more cheese from now on."  
Keith cracks a very small smile. He gets up to show Shay to Lance's room.  
"Yeah! Play some games with him!" Hunk turns towards the door when there is a knock.  
"You don't have to knock in your own shrine." Lance says exasperatedly then shakes his head. He's never had much privacy before anyway. Looking to Hunk, Lance nods and smiles. "I will."  
From the doorway, Shay motions for Hunk. "We have cows waiting for us. We need to go." She says before adding. "We can come back."  
Hunk nods and quickly gives Lance one last bear hug before moving to Shay's side. "I'll make sure to visit often!"  
Keith makes sure to stand to the side, not interfering the moment.  
Lance nods. While he’s happy to stay, he can’t hide that he's a bit sad to have to watch them go. He waves as they leave, saying a long slew of goodbyes.  
Once they are gone, Lance watches them from the entryway, odd mix of sad and happy.  
"Shay talked with you for a while." He says, knowing Keith had followed. "Do you know her?"  
"She is the one to usually bring the offerings," he answers. Not giving much detail.  
"That makes sense." Lance states before sighing and quickly turning to Keith with a smile. He looks to the baskets of goods and walks over, grabbing one of them before carrying it to the kitchen. "Come with me while I put these away?" He asks while looking back at Keith.  
"Sure. Do you want me to bring the other one?" He asks, walking over to the second basket.  
"No no. I can do it." He doesn’t want Keith to have to do more work. "It’s the least I can do." He says before starting to sift through all the food. "Wow there's so much here!" He laughs while snacking on some of the carrots and he puts some of the food away.  
"Ok." Keith leans against the wall as he watches Lance. It's a good thing a friend of Lance's is a farmer.  
Lance organizes all of the foods before starting to put things away, literally snacking the entire time. After a while, he has the basket emptied and the food put away so he darts away to grab the other basket. This one has some food but also and assortment of seeds, which makes Lance even happier. "So do you have like...God things to do today?" He asks while placing all the seeds in a pile then excitedly grabs a lemon and peels it like you would an orange and starts to eat it, shivering from the sourness but obviously enjoying it.  
"Not entirely," he says. He wonders if it's safe to show Lance the crystal ball. Probably since Lance doesn't have power. "Do you want to check with me?"  
Lance perks up. "Can I?! Is that allowed?!" He hops up after putting the last of the food away and darta next to Lance.  
"I don't see why not." Keith shrugs and shows Lance the way to his room. It was twice as big as Lances. The crystal ball was on a stand in the middle of the room.  
Lance stops outside Keith's room, nervous to enter. He knows he shouldn’t fear entering Keith's room, but it’s all too familiar to follow someone like this. Plus, this is a God's room. "Are you sure I should come in?"  
"Yeah. You gotta come inside in order to see what I'm doing," Keith says, oblivious to the reason why Lance is getting nervous.  
"Y-yeah ok." Lance swallows his fear. This is Keith. If he was going to do something, he would have already. ...right?  Hesitating just inside the doorway, Lance finally steps forward and stands opposite of Keith looking at the glass ball.  
"Is that a real crystal ball?" He tries to distract himself.  
"Yes so don't actually touch it." He didn't mean to sound rude. The crystal ball slowly starts to show Hunk's farm.  
"Yes! Ok." Lance jumps back. Bit and holds his hands behind his back. Steadying his breathing, Lance looks around the room. It’s so large. Looking around makes him more nervous though, so he looks back to Keith. "S-see anything good?"  
"They don't seem to be running low on water but would you like me to make out rain for them?" Keith glances up at Lance. Maybe Lance doesn't like it here after all. Or was it because he was showing Hunk's farm?  
"It can be a bit of a hassle if they get too much rain on the farm." Lance tries to be thoughtful of his friends. He would like it if it rained every night so long as he had sunshine during the day. "Can, can you see anywhere with that?" Lance hates that he's this nervous but can't help it.  
"Yes," Keith answers. "Is there a place you would like to see?" He raises an eyebrow as he look back up at Lance.  
"Not really." Lance admits. "Just making conversation." He stands a few steps back from the crystal ball, not really seeing whatever it is Keith can see and chews on the inside of his lip.  
Keith switched to a different farm before looking up at Lance. "You don't have to be here." He doesn't show his disappointment. He thought he was following what Shay told him to do. He thought Lance wanted to be here.  
"I..."  Lance looks around again then bows his head.  "I want to spend time with you.  I do."  He  swallows hard.  "I just...get...nervous sometimes is all."  With a sigh, he makes a fist and walks next to Keith, standing behind him, imagining being able to see the magical images Keith can see and it helps him calm down.  
Keith doesn't know how to deal with these emotions. If he followed his instincts, he would either tell Lance to leave or he would walk out to leave Lance alone. It takes quite a bit of mental strength to keep himself from doing either of them. Keith places a hand on top of the ball and it starts raining on the farm that is currently showing.  
Lance somehow manages to relax a bit as Keith seems to have his attention elsewhere.  He finally starts to walk around the room, looking at the different things he has with curious eyes.  Looking at Keith's bed, he can't help but think it looks comfortable which causes a shiver to run down his spine before he wanders to the window.  Noticing the sun is coming in at a good angle, he starts to make shadow puppets on the wall, quietly giggling to himself and hoping Keith doesn't find it too distracting.  
Keith glances at Lance, feeling a bit sad that Lance doesn't seem comfortable next to him. He looks back down and looked at all the other places before checking on Lance's old town, specifically the dance house owner.  
Lance actually notices Keith glance at him and the look isn't one he's use to.  He racked his brain, trying to think of a time when someone has looked at him like that, but...he can't place it.  Curiously, he watches Keith more closely.  "Is everything...ok?"  He sounds genuinely curious, especially when Keith's eyebrows dip.  What is he looking at?  Is that what the strange expression was?  Ignoring his fear, Lance walks up to Keith and squats beside him.  "You look...upset?  C-can I help?"  He wants to choke on his own words.  He hopes his disdain doesn't show.  
Not wanting Lance to see, he quickly makes the faucet the owner is using break due to high water pressure. The faucet hits the owner is the face before he gets hit the the water. He then switches back to another farm. "It's nothing. I just saw something I would rather not." His expression relaxes. "But since I have to constantly check on farms, I'll run into it eventually," he says in a light tone. He hopes Lance would get that he is referring to animal breeding.  
"Oh, alright."  Lance smiles and tilts his head as he looks into the glass ball again.  "It must be so cool to have powers."  He straightens his head out.  "Well, maybe not to you I guess.  It's just normal, huh?"  Still squatting, he rests his head on his knees and hums a bit.  If there was one thing from home he missed, it was the constant music playing.  "So...if the town doesn't give you more offerings, you'll still make it rain and stuff right?"  
"Yeah. I go based on if I feel that they need or deserve it. Though there are times where I am unable to do my job." He doesn't take his eyes off the ball as he switches to a grassy field.  
Lance seems suddenly worried.  "When you can't?"  He is oblivious to the amount of concern on his face.  What could make a god unable to do their work?  
Keith tenses for a second. The first reason that came to mind was one he wasn't prepare to share verbally yet. He quickly relaxes and explains the other reason. "Sometimes the god that controls the sun is too strong in an area and I can't make it rain." To give an example, he shows a desert.  
Being as close as he is, Lance sees him tense and remembers the scars.  "That makes sense."  He tries to see what Keith sees and just doesn't see anything but, an expert at sensing tightened nerves, Lance stands up and starts to effleurage massage down Keith's shoulders and back.  "Sorry to pry.  I just find it fascinating."  Lance smiles, trying to keep his own nerves under wraps as he tries to calm Keith.  
Keith tenses up more when Lance starts messaging him. "W-what are you doing?" His face is red and his eyes wide.   He looks over his shoulder at Lance but doesn't move away. It feels nice which relaxes him a little but it's still unknown touching to him.  
"A-a massage."  Lance pauses his fingers.  "You looked tense.  It usually helps."  He shakes his head.  "Or do you just not like effleurage?  Some don't.  I've just found its a bit more relaxing to start with."  Realizing he's rambling Lance stops and stands with his hands at his sides.  "I'm sorry I should have asked first."  He speaks with his head bowed.  
"A massage? Is it like... Body magic?" Keith isn't fully relaxed yet but he is getting there.  
Lance can't hold back his laugh.  "It's not magic."  He realizes Keith is enjoying the massage so he kneads his shoulders a bit more now.  Years before, he'd been trained in massage therapy so he was quite good at it.  "It's just knowing how to...stretch muscle?"  Lance realizes he's not sure how to explain a massage.  "It's just...not magic.  Anyone can do it."  
"You can stretch someone's muscle for them? Are you sure it's not magic?" Keith was fully relaxed now. He starts to humm softly.  
"If yours is the same as humans,"  Lance tilts his head and smiles as he looks at Keith's calmed face.  "And I can assume it is, a lot has to do with pressure points and unwinding knots."  He smiles happily, having seemed to finally do something right.  "But it's not magic.  There are plenty of scripts about it.  One of my many entertaining talents I suppose."  
"Humans have body magic," Keith mumbles to himself, not letting it go. His hums slowly shift to soft purring.  
Lance laughs a little.  "It's really not magic."  He teases then moves his hands to the back of Keith's neck and hairline.  "Seems to be working though."  His face is happy despite still being a bit nervous about being in someone else's room.  "You're hair is so soft."  Lance adds quietly as he starts to massage Keith's scalp.  
Keith's eyes start to close and he purrs louder.  
Lance chuckles again and stands closer, allowing Keith to lean his head back onto him as he massages his temples and scalp.  He smiles down at Keith then can't resist his desire to poke the pleased God's nose.  Knowing full well he shouldn't, Lance does then laughs quietly.  
Keith scrunches his face for a second before relaxing. He looks at Lance with innocent child-like eyes due to the new experiences and because he is looking at Lance upside down.  
Lance gives him a sideways grin.  "For a god, you're far more adorable than intimidating, you know that?"  He says this before he can take it back.  His eyes go wide and he grows a bit pale.  "That- was not meant to be an insult!"  Not moving away as Keith was using him to lean against and would hate to be the reason he fell, Lance chooses to do the awkward thing of pushing Keith's hair into his eyes so they aren't making eye contact anymore.  "Sorry."  
"Wha-" Keith is cut off by Lance pushing his hair into his eyes. He doesn't move his head though. "Wait, explain first. How am I cute?"  
Lance scratches his head and shakes it a little.  "I don't know?  You just..."  He tries to think of the best way to explain it.  Thinking through all of the faces he's seen in his lifetime, Lance realizes what it is he likes so much about Kieth.  "It's your eyes."  His voice comes out a bit more steady with this.  "And the way they...look at me rather than through me."  He looks to the side and mumbles something so incoherently it can't even be deciphered as words.  
"My eyes? If you like them so much, why are you covering them?"  
Lance isn't sure how to respond.  He fidgets a bit in place, feeling an odd fluttering in his stomach.  "I...just didn't know how to... you..."  With a huff,  Lance crosses his arms and exhales.  "I don't know."  
"You could always just... take them," he jokes.  
Lance looks momentarily horrified.  "Take your eyes?!"  He  can't hide his odd mix of confusion and fear.  
Keith realized his mistake. Humans probably can't handle their eyes being taken. "It's... a god joke," he mumbles," Since we heal differently."  
Lance  shakes his head and basically hugs Keith's eyes.  "Please keep them there."  He rests his forehead on the top of Keith's head.  "Healing different or not, it can't feel nice.  And I plan not to hurt you if I can manage it."  His heart is still racing at the thought of harming Keith's eyes.  
His heart starts to pound faster. It feels really nice to have Lance like this. "Sorry," he whispers. He really wouldn't mind giving an eye to Lance if he really wanted it.  
Lance shakes his head.  "It's alright."  He doesn't move away, sometime about this is oddly calming.  "I think you are transferring your body magic to me."  Lance teases a little as he  sighs.  
Keith chuckles softly. His smile is pretty visible, especially since Lance is so close.  
Lance's eyes go wide at the smile and his heart skips a noticeable beat but he suddenly looks away, not so much bashful as ashamed.  He doesn't deserve a smile like that from a god.  
Keith slowly lifts up his arms and gently grab onto Lance's arms. He gently pulls down just so he could see Lance, even if it's only with one eye. "Are we gonna stay like this or we gonna do something?" He asks with the smile still on his face. It looked almost like a smirk now.  
Lance freezes entirely and his face goes pale but he makes eye contact again.  He is panicking, but doing his very best not to show it.  His mind can only go one place with this kind of question.  What does he say?  After a moment of silence, Lance swallows hard.  "I- er, what would you like?"  He turns his eyes back to the side. It slightly irks him that thinking of this situation turning how it normally would make his heart skip.  
"Dance or something." His smile goes away, seeing Lance pale. "Maybe a nap. " He yawns at the thought. Gods aren't immune to yawns.  
Lance is thrown off to the point that he steps back and covers his face suddenly disgusted with himself.  "I'm so sorry."  He says, likely not making sense to the obviously innocent god.  
Keith lifts his head back up and then turns to face lance.  "You don't have to be sorry. " he thinks Lance is sorry for covering his eyes.  
"Yes I do."  Lance is so ashamed of himself that he just squats down to hide himself more.  "I don't...I really don't deserve this."  He shakes his head, voice escaping weakly again.  "I'm sorry."  
Keith is confused and he doesn't know what to do. "Really, it's okay." He is internally starting to panic. Did he do something wrong? He squats down too. He reaches a hand towards Lance but stops himself from touching Lance. What should he do?  
Lance peaks through his hands when Keith squats down beside him.  "It's not though."  He laughs.  "Here you are, trying to be considerate.  Thinking of things you know I like and here - here -"  Lance can't get himself to say what he thought Keith wanted at first.  "You are too good for me.  On so many levels."  Bowing his head, Lance saw Keith's hand reaching out for him and - more out of instinct then thought - he reaches out and grabs it.  "So, for that, I'm sorry."  
Keith doesn't know how to respond. He's not really that good... He gently grips Lance's hand.  
Lance bows his head, taking Keith's hand in his a little more tightly before carefully leaning forward to put his head onto Keith's shoulder and laughs a little, or tries to anyway.  "Jesus with friends with a whore too right?  So I guess it makes sense for you to join the ranks." Despite saying something so harsh, he doesn't move away, this closeness is nice .  
"I wouldn't call them whores," Keith mumbled. He looks at Lance with worried eyes.  
Lance laughs sadly then  asks, "And what would you call them?"  He raises an eyebrow and looks toward Keith, "entertainers?"  The word catches in his throat as he's fairly certain his full job description will be discovered by that line.  Nervously, he shakes his head and apologizes then quietly asks "can I hug you again?"  He looks up into Keith's eyes and sees the worry in his eyes and has to look away.  
"I'd fall them forced. Entertainer slaves," he whispers. "You can hug me whenever you need it."  
Lance instantly grabs him in a hug and clings to him, and takes deep breaths.  "How are you always so nice?"  He asks, grip on Keith's shirt tightening.  "Don't I bother you?"  
Keith could probably answer the first question but he decides against it. "You don't bother me. Not at all." He hugs Lance back and combs on hand into Lance's hair. The other hand rubs Lance's back in a circular motion.  
Lance relaxes into the touch quicker than even he'd been ready for.  "I'm glad then."  He admits before slowly releasing his grip on Keith though he doesn't move away, in fact, he stays cuddled close, just holds his arms at his chest.  "I would hate to have passed giving you your space back if I was a bother."  His voice is quiet as he speaks.  "I really do want to do all I can for you."  
Keith sighs. "I don't need anything." His hands stop moving but stay around Lance. "Why can't you think about do all you can for yourself?"  
"For me?"  Lance seems confused.  He looks up at Keith with his head tilted.  "I don't need anything more.  You've done more for me in just two days than I could ask for."  His words are meant to be sweet.  Smiling once that is stated, Lance nudges Keith with his head.  "You're body magic works too."  He teases before finally sitting back away from Keith though not going far.  
Keith lets out a mix of a huff and a laugh. He is a bit sad when Lance pulls away. "I honestly don't need anything though."  
"Fine." Lance feels his entire body start to shake with the thought of what he's about to suggest. "You yawned. I'm sure it doesn't mean much for gods but...would you like to...take a nap...together?" He likes the idea but it makes him oddly nervous.  
"Sleep... Together? I guess we can do that." He doesn't remember the last time he needed Shiro to be with him in order to sleep.  
Lance swallows the rest of his nerves, not wanting to admit this was not help him get over his slight fear of... More intimate closeness. He looks over to Keith's bed and scratches the back of his head. "While I like hammocks, most tend to prefer real beds. Either place is fine though...to me I mean." Despite his uncertainty, he isn't blushing so much as he is shivering. He doesn't realize he is shivering though, so his fake aura of bashful confidence doesn’t look very believable.  
Keith sees how Lance is shivering. "We can sleep in your room. I can figure out an arrangement for myself."  
Lance grabs his hand and laughs a bit. "Two can sleep in a hammock." He enters his room and takes a seat on the hammock, directing Keith to do the same."once I lay down...you do the same and it will balance out pretty well." Lance looks something between happy and horribly nervous. He’s never actually just cuddled so he isn't sure how well it will actually go.  
"Are you sure this will work?" Keith asks, hesitant to get one. Despite setting it up, he doesn't know how to get on.  
Lance nods. He knows two people can lay together in a hammock. He's seen it done. With a smile that's suppose to be confident, lance grabs Keith and pulls him into the center of the hammock. Lance keeps it steady with one leg as they lay down then he pulls his leg up. Being in a hammock, they literally have to cuddle but despite his shiver lance doesn't seem to mind. "see. Told ya."  
"Are you sure we won't fall over in our sleep?" Keith asks. He doesn't mind being so close since he it too worried about balancing. Since Lance still hasn't stopped shivering yet, he wonders what else could be causing it other than being in someone else's room.  
"No. We won't." Lance grabs the edge of it and rolls a bit, showing how it curls tigher as he tries. Taking a deep breath, lance cuddles down into Keith, even so far as to wrap his arms around one of Keith's.  "After our nap I can teach you more dances." His voice is already tired as his sleep hadn't been the best last night.  
"Okay," Keith responds as he starts to comb Lance's hair. He wasn't as tired but he'll stay here for Lance.  
"It will be nice." Lance hums into the feeling of Keith's fingers in his hair. As he relaxes, his body finally stops shivering and he curls in close, grip on Keith's arm tightening as he falls asleep.  
Once Lance is asleep, Keith slowls his hand to a stop. This is so new to him. He watches Lance's face for a bit. His eyelids start to get heavy and he slowly falls asleep.


	2. 2

Once Lance is asleep, Keith slows his hand to a stop. This is so new to him. He watches Lance's face for a bit. His eyelids start to get heavy and he slowly falls asleep.

Lance sleeps better than he had in a long time. When he wakes up, the sun is already in the other side of the sky. He turns back to Keith and smiles. The god was still sleeping. "I never should have worried." He whispers to himself before starting to run his fingers through Keith's hair.

Keith starts to purr and nuzzles closer to Lance.

Happy to see Keith being so comfortable, lance continues running his fingers through Keith's hair and starts to humming a lulling song in hopes that Keith would like it when he woke.

Hearing the song, Keith starts to wake up. He lets out a small whine as he forces his eyes open. They were unfocused, his whole vision was blurry. He leaned his head more towards the hand as he stared off into space. With Lance in front of him, it looked like he was staring at Lance.

Lance pulls back a bit and stops singing, thinking the whine meant he didn’t like it.  He pouts a bit before apologizing. "I didn’t mean to wake you. I thought you would like it. I-I'm sorry." He doesn’t move as to not throw off the balance but he's worried he had bothered him.

Keith whines again. He liked the song, where did it go? He buried his face into Lance's chest and whined again when the song still hasn't come back. This is one reason why Keith doesn't like sleeping, he takes a while to become fully awake.

When Keith whines then cuddles into him, Lance realizes he was just having a hard time waking up. With a warm smile, he starts to hum again before wrapping his arm around the cuddling God. He can't hide the adoring smile he has while looking down to him.

Keith nuzzles into Lance again before just laying there, listening to Lance. His visions slowly starts to focus.

"Good morning, my lord." Lance says teasingly when he realizes Keith is finally focusing. He runs his hands through Keith's hair.

"Morning," he mumbles. Keith purrs when Lance combs his hair again.

Lance smiles and laughs a bit. "You act like no one has ever spoiled you like this."  He says innocently. "I'm not sure I've ever seen someone so happy from something so simple."

"What so you mean?" You could tell Keith was still a bit tired. He still isn't 100% awake yet. He really has never been spoiled like this before.

Lance smiles and runs  his hands through Keith's hair. "I just mean, you are so happy when I do such small things." He has calmed down significantly since first entering Keith's room and now clearly enjoyed the closeness. He cuddles closer and starts to give a gentle massage. "You don’t have to be awake if you aren't ready." He says quietly.

Keith hums and starts to close his eyes again but there was a louder thunder clap that made his eyes shoot wide open.

Lance jumps a bit at the sound and when Keith's eyes go wide, he cuddles him closer. "Shh. Calm down." He thinks at first the sound just jolted him. But when Keith doesn't relax, Lance gets worried. "What is it?"

"How... How do I get down?" Keith asked, his voice shaky and quiet.

Lance helps him down but stays close. "Keith, what's wrong?" He never imagined seeing a scared god. "What was that?"

"S-someone's here." He doesn't care that Lance can hear him stutter at the moment. He slowly walked towards the main room.   
"Keith~ You finally showed your face!" A long white haired man stood in the middle of the room.    
"Lotor," Keith growled.

Lance follows behind Keith and sees the other man. He takes a few minutes to decide how to react, carefully watching Keith's body language before shaking his head and stepping in front of him.

"What do you want with my master?" Lance decides it best to treat Keith with more respect than usual in front of this new person.

Keith is surprised when Lance steps in front of him.

"Oh, so you finally took an offering? And a human one for that matter. Are you so lonely that you broke your own rule?" Lotor teased, ignoring Lance's question. Keith just glared at Lotor. He knows no matter what he says, Lotor will not change how he sees the

situation.

Lance looks back to Keith, suddenly curious what this rule was but shakes his head. "I didn’t give him a choice." Lance lies a bit as doesn't like the fear he'd seen in Keith's eyes. "What do you want?" His eyes narrow toward this new person. Something about him reminds Lance of those who looked down on him and finds his spine crawling. Despite this, he doesn’t back down.

Lotor chuckled and finally locked eyes with Lance. "I came for a long overdue visit." His hand started to spark, causing Keith to grip onto the back of Lance's clothing. Lotor could see the fear increase in Keith, making him laugh more and for the sparks to increase.

Lance glares and moves Keith behind him, remembering the burn marks on Keith. He stands taller, as if trying to shield Keith. "I think your presence has been far from missed." His voice is almost a growl. Fearing saying th next line he pauses but says it anyway. "I will happily relay your message. So please say your words so we can be rid of you."

Lotor glares at Lance. He does not like being talked back to, especially from a human. The sparks increase more. "How dare you speak to me like that!" Lotor charges, the sparking hand ready to grab Lance's face. To Keith, it was almost slow motion. He will not allow Lance to be hurt because of him. He pulls Lance back and grabs into Lotor's wrist. His nails dug into the other god's skin. The sparks licked against his own skin but he ignored it. "You are not welcomed here," Keith growled as he tightened his grip on Lotor.

"Respect is only given when it is deserved." Lance growls then swallows hard as he watches Lotor start to move.  He looks horrified when Keith pushes out of the way. "Keith!" He isn’t sure what to do, he wants to protect him. He is nice! He doesn't deserve pain! Carefully, he steps between them. "Don’t hurt him." Lance growls then tries to pull Keith away. "I was trying to protect you. Getting back in the way kind of defeats that." Lance says, stepping between the gods and ignoring Lotor for a moment.

Keith releases Lotor's hand. Lotor backs away, cradling his now slightly bleeding arm. Keith looks down at Lance with an expression mixed with worry and confusion. Keith makes that mix look cute. "But he was attacking you." Lotor softly growled, hating being ignored.

"I dont care " Lance admits with a slight pout. "You are more important than me. People depend on you. So if some piece of trash wants to harm someone I'd rather it be me." Lance moves Keith back again to face Lotor. "You can leave now." He tries not to show how scared he is.

Keith wanted to argue more with Lance but he turned away. "Being protected by a human offering. How pathetic," Lotor spat. "You're more pathetic now than you were last time. You're just a waste of time." Lotor turned his back to them and left in a lighting flash.

Lance's blood was boiling, he had moved to attack but Lotor was already gone so he just storms up to the nearest wall and angily punches it, needing to put his rage somewhere. He looks back at Keith then and hurries beside him. "You aren't pathetic. You know that right?"

Keith is a bit surprised. He wasn't expecting Lance to be so angry. When Lance asks that question, he doesn't answer. He looks down at the floor sadly. Lotor has been bullying him for... He can't even remember when it all started anymore.

Lance grabs Keith's shoulders and forces him to look up. "Listen to me. You are the god of rain. Without rain, nothing would exist. What is he, the god of lightning or some shit? You know why he hates you?" Lance pauses, trying to calm down. "Its because without rain, no one pays attention to lightning. So without you he is useless." He grabs him in a hug. "You aren't pathetic." Then remembering the sparks, he quickly asks. "You aren’t hurt though I hope?"

Keith looks at Lance with a sad expression. He doesn't fully believe Lance. When Lance worries over his hand, he shows the very light burns he got.

Lance touches the marks with a pout. "Let’s put some aloe on it." He pulls Keith toward the plant and breaks off a piece before carefully covering the marks. "I'm serious about what I said though." Lance says quietly. "You aren’t pathetic. You mean a lot to a lot of people." He wiggles about nervously. "You mean a lot to me." He says then nervously adds. "The rain is very calming to me. Has helped me for years."

His arm tensed every time the aloe touched a mark. "But it's just falling water," Keith argued softly.

"And without it crops wouldn't grow. The tides would fall. Lakes and ponds would dry out." Lance shakes his head. "Children wouldn’t have puddles to play in. I wouldn't have rain to dance in. The sound of it raining outside my window would never have been able to help me through the hardest nights." He bows his head. "It may only be falling rain, but it’s so much more than that." Lance looks to the ground and sighs. "At least to me."

Keith whines softly, finding Lance's words more convincing. He steps closer to Lance and rubs his cheek against Lance's.

Lance is caught off guard by Keith's closeness but he isn’t frightened this time. He shakes his head and sighs. Wrapping his arms around Keith, Lance nuzzles his cheek against Keith's with a giggle. "What was that for?"

"Thank you," he whispers, not moving away. The closeness is really nice. He might get addicted to skinship.

"I didn’t do anything?" Lance says, confused. He notes that Keith doesnt move away so he laughs and shrugs, swallowing down thoughts of how much he enjoys this. Keith is a God. He just wants the closeness as a means to relax. It doesn't mean anything more. "I said something about dancing before our nap, would you like that still?" He asks while staying close then nuzzling him again.

Keith humms, nuzzling back. "I wanna see more of your dance magic," he mumbled. He is going to call any amazing thing Lance does magic.

Lance laughs then leads him toward the dance room. Once there he looks around, hoping to find a radio. Excitedly, he finds one and scans through until he finds a station he can dance to. When he finally does, Lance sits Keith down and smiles before climbing up the aerial silks. "You don’t mind if I do this again do you? "

"It's your performance," Keith says. He doesn't care what type of dance Lance does because he would look amazing anyways.

Lance had prepped for a different dance, but the song changes and he remembers watching a performance to it. Dropping back down, he grins a bit then starts to dance. While dancing, he finds himself paying special attention to Keith, turning all his motions hia direction and winking at him before the drop.

Keith is completely amazed. His cheeks were slightly red but he couldn't take his eyes off Lance.

Lance spins down and balances so he can be face to face with Keith and smiles before he realizes how red Keith's cheeks are. Hoping to not give away the start he felt in his chest from it, Lance quickly climbs his way back up the silks and does a few stretches, hoping to will calm his rapidly beating heart.  
"Stop this. He's a god, Lance." He reminds himself breathlessly, hoping Keith cant hear him over the music.

Keith is a bit sad that Lance stopped dancing. He doesn't take his eyes off Lance though. Even his stretches amazes him.

Seeing the look on Keith's face, Lance smiles and, once a new song starts he starts to dance again. This one has more spinning than the last as the song was a bit more fluid and once it comes to an end, Lance gracefully finds the ground and is out of breath as he bows to Keith.

"Good?" He pants.

"Amazing," Keith says breathlessly. He doesn't understand the light feeling in his chest but it made him smile. The very visible smile stayed for a few seconds before shrinking to his usual tiny ones.

Lance's eyes grow wide when Keith smiles so openly and he smiles in response. "You have an amazing smile. You shouldn’t hide it." He says before taking a seat beside Keith and leaning back onto the wall. His mouth is dry but he doesn't have the will to get up and find water yet.

Keith covers his mouth and blushes more. "My smile is weird," he says through his hand.

"No its not?" Lance says with his head tilted. He laughs a bit then pokes Keith's cheek. "Its very enduring." With a loud exhale, Lance stands and stretches. "Time for water." He grabs Keith and lifts him up, becoming almost addicted to having his god with him. He heads toward the kitchen and is surprised to see the sky changing to brilliant Orange and red hue already. He turns to Keith excitedly. "Watch the sunset with me?!"

"Sure?" Keith wasn't sure why Lance was so excited about sunset. He knew one reason why he himself would be excited but that has nothing to do with watching the sun.

Lance grabs a glass of water then drags Keith outside.  He takes a seat on the ground, sitting his glass down before quickly untying his sash and laying it on the ground beside him.  Then he gently yanks Keith toward the spot, giving him puppy dog eyes in hopes that he will join him.

Keith wasn't going to fight Lance but the puppy dog eyes made his knees weak. He quickly sat down next to Lance. "The sun is actually pretty shy," Keith says suddenly.

"Oh?"  Lance asks before taking a drink of his water.  "You know...I guess I'm not surprised."  He looks up to the sky happily.  "The brightest lights tend to shield themselves the most huh?"  His face is warmed by the sun but then his stomach reminds him he hasn't had much to eat. "Be right back." He says before darting away quickly and coming back nearly as fast.  He carries two bowls when he comes back and has a triangle of cheese in his mouth.  Placing the food in front of them, Lance takes a bite of the cheese then looks back to the sky.  "Sunset is always so pretty.  Like nature doing a painting."

Keith watches Lance leave and come back. He finds it a bit funny to see Lance with cheese sticking out of his mouth. "I'm sure they secretly love seeing so many people watching the sun set."

Lance nods then grabs  one of the berries and leans toward Keith, offering him one.  "I would hope so."  He says with a smile.  "Beauty should be appreciated.  It's all too rare in this world."

Not hesitating, Keith leans over a bit and eats the berry. He licks his lips as he moves back to his previous position.

Lance beams as Keith eats it without arguing.  He swallows hard as his stomach does an odd flip when Keith licks his lips so he makes a fist and quickly stuffs his face with the cheese.  "Thank you for everything again."  He says quietly once  his mouth is empty.

Keith just humms, the fruit still in his mouth. He looked up at the moon, seeing that it was a full moon.  


Lance grins and looks up to the moon before sliding his hands back behind him, propping himself up.  "I didn't know it was a full moon yet."  He laughs.  "Isn't that suppose to mean a good time to start a new cycle? "  Lance sighs.

"Hmn... If you wanna put it that way." Keith honestly wished it would stay a full moon.

"Oh that's just what humans say."  Lance shrugs then grabs a cashew from the other bowl and  holds it toward Keith, making his playful puppy eyes again.  "Things must be so different for Gods."  He muses quietly.

Keith can't fight Lance's puppy eyes. He eats the cashew.

"Wow, Keith!"  
Keith jolts back, his cheeks really red. Shiro was standing a bit away from them. When did Shiro get here? How did he not notice?!

Remembering the last god to visit, Lance instantly jumps up, ready to protect Keith again.  "Who are you?"  He asks cautiously.  His body is more tired then he was ready for though.  Multiple aerial dances have left him  oddly exhausted.  Or maybe it was worrying for Keith earlier?

"Wow wow." Shiro raises both hands in surrender. Keith stands up and places a hand on Lance's shoulder.

"It's okay. He isn't going to hurt me."

"What?! Did someone hurt you?!" Shiro rushes to check Keith. He finds the marks on Keith's left hand. Shiro locks eyes with Keith. Keith nods. Shiro knows who did this and Keith just confirmed it. "I'm so sorry I didn't come sooner."

"Oh. Sorry."  Lance bows, realizing this must be a friendly god.  He folds himself over dramatically.  "I meant no offense."  He watches Shiro tend to Keith and sighs then smiles a bit.  "I tried to keep him back."  Lance grumbles.  "But at least I put Aloe on it.  Aloe does help gods too right?"

"Yes. It does help," Shiro answered before taking a step back. "Are you the offering Keith took?"

Lance curtsies with a silly grin.  "That would be me."  He nods then touches his chest.  "Lance."  With a laugh he scratches the back of his head.  "So he's unanimously known in the God realm as one to  not take offering too hm?  I thought it was just us humans being stubborn."

Shiro laughs. "He usually gives the offerings to me if the people don't take it back."

"O-oh."  Lance  seems confused but shakes his head and smiles.  "Must be he was looking for someone more exciting than all of them."  Lance says after putting his hand on his hip.  "If you, wanted to talk with Keith I can leave.  I don't know how that...god stuff works."  He says a bit more seriously this time.

Shiro smiles gently at Lance. "No It's alright. I just came to check up on Keith, especially since he had finally accepted an offering. I'm glad that you both seem to be doing great."

Lance tilts his head to the side.  "Are you sure?"  He looks guilty, assuming he must have interrupted something important.  Glancing over at Keith, Lance  gives him a look of , 'what do you want me to do'

Keith grabs onto the very edge of Lance's clothing, hopping it's not super obvious to Shiro. Shiro still sees it but doesn't show how extremely happy he is that Keith found someone to be with. Now he won't have to worry so much about Keith. He'll still need to watch over them though, the two are very different personality wise.

Lance smiles at Keith's touch then looks back to Shiro.  "So God person, do you have a name or should I just make one up for you?"  He asks after putting a hand back on his hip.  "My names are awful mind you."

"Oh, where are my manners. My name is Shiro, god of the moon." He held a hand to his chest as if being prepared to bow.

Lance  shoves his hands forward, stopping Shiro from bowing.  "It's nice to meet you but there's no need to bow, please!"  He  seems honestly a bit...nervous about having a god bowing to him.  "The moon huh?  Oh!  Then do you maybe like morning glories?  Humans seem to think morning glories are important to the moon I guess."  He shakes his head, cutting himself off.  "I just, if you do,  I've been given permission to plant a garden and those will be hopefully growing along the back of it."  He states proudly.

Shiro lowers his arm. "Morning glories are my favorite," he admits. "I would love to see them when they are fully grown."

Lance gets almost giddy at that reaction.  "Really?!"  He jumps excitedly then turns back to Keith, hoping he might share his excitement somehow.  "I'll make sure to tend well to them!"  His smile blossoms then he grabs Keith's arms.  "You help, right?"

Keith smiles, his usual small one. "Yeah." Shiro fangirled inside. Lance can even make Keith smile!

Lance nods happily then looks back at Shiro.  "Should I grow anything else for you?"  He asks with an innocent smile.  "We got a lot of seeds from Hunk and Shay.  I haven't even started planting them yet!"  It was exciting to meet another god.  Especially another god who seemed to be as friendly as Keith.  "Oh!"  Grabbing a handful of the berries, Lance offers them to Shiro.  "Did you want any?"

"No, I'm okay." Shiro shakes his head. "I'm not well knowledged with flowers so I cant really tell you what other flowers I like."

Seeing how well they hit off, Keith wonder is he should ask Shiro if he wants to take Lance. Shiro will probably do a better job at taking care of Lance.

"What's with all you gods and not knowing flowers?"  Lance says with a laugh then shrugs and eats the berries before turning to Keith.  "Think fast!"  He tosses one at him with a laugh.

Keith again catches it with his mouth. Shiro finally can't hold it in and laughs. Keith blushes, pouts, and looks away with folded arms.

Lance looks back to Shiro and tilts his head.  "Isn't that what you're supposed to do when someone throws food at you?"  He says teasingly before watching Keith blush.  Mumbling, not thinking about how close he is to the god of the moon, Lance sighs.  "He's way too cute when he pouts."

Shiro laughs. "I'm glad you think so."

"Y-you heard me?!" Lance shakes his head.  "I don't mean anything by it.  I just, he's a god."  He panics, afraid of what another god will say about him calling his...owner(?) cute.

Shiro pats Lance's back. "Its ok. Don't be so tense."

"But, but he's  a god and I'm...well not." Lance pouts a bit then looks back to Shiro.  "But...it doesn't bother you?"  He asks as though he should be bothered.  Looking back at Keith, Lance feels an oddness in his chest that makes he just look back to Shiro.  "I mean, I'm just an offering."  He mutters.

"Is that how Keith sees you?" Shiro asks, already knowing the answer. "Does he treat you like one?"

"I...I don't know?"  Lance isn't really lying per se,  just...he's never known how an offering actually acts.  "I mean, I asked him to be my friend.  We....he said ok?  But...I just..."  Scratching the back of his head and looking down, Lance admits, "I'm not really use to people being nice for no reason so I guess I'm just not sure."  He sighs.  "I just want to...make him happy too."

That makes Shiro smile more. "You're not just an offering. If you were, he would not have accepted you." Shiro rubs Lance's back.

Lance smiles and nods.  "I've noticed."  He gives Keith a playful glare.  "Trust me."  Then he waves his hands.  "Not that I'm complaining about being here now  just... you know, it was a surprise to have my door broken in."  He laughs nervously then bounces next to Keith and bumps his hip with his then, noticing the missing jingle from his coins, grabs up his sash as Keith had stood up some time ago.  After brushing it off, Lance puts it back on and shimmies, laughing a little at the jingle made from the coins.  "I think Keith needed some entertainment though.”

Keith tilted his head slightly and scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. Why did Lance glare at him? He playfully glares back when Lance hip bumped him.

"I agree," Shiro said.

"What does that mean?" Keith asked, thinking they were teasing him about something.

"You're stubborn is what it means."  Lance responds quickly then thinks for a bit.  "I guess I'm thankful for it though."  He admits with a warm smile then he gets a serious look and grabs Shiro, pulling him away from Keith for a minute.  "Question for you."  He starts before looking back at Keith to make sure he hadn't followed.  "Ok, two I guess." After biting his lips together, Lance exhales.  "First, is it ok for me to punch a god if he comes back?  And second...why does Keith hide his smile?"

Shiro was a bit surprised when Lance pulled him to the side. Keith staid where he was, knowing that being pulled away means they want to talk in private.  
"I'm assuming you mean Lotor? He might start to target you if you do manage to land a good hit on him," Shiro said, not really saying no to that question. "As for his smile... I'm not entirely sure. He's never been much of a smiler though."

"Fine with me so long as that asshole walks away with a black eye."  He says grumpily then pouts at the answer to the second question.  "But...he has such a good smile."  Lance says with a whine  then scratches his collarbone.  "Do you think it will bother him if I try to make him smile more?"  Lance waves his hands.  "I don't mean like...force him or anything but...he feels so...alone?"  He tilts his head, not sure that was quite what he meant.

"I'm sure he won't mind. It'll be good for him to smile more," Shiro says. He takes a peek at Keith who has turned his back to give them more privacy. "He always insists that he is okay alone so I'm glad he has you now."

Lance perks up at that.  "You are?"  He watches for Shiro to nod then his smile grows then puts a finger over his lips and sneaks up to Keith and grabs him in a hug.  "I like this god!"

Keith is shocked when Lance hugs him. He looks over his shoulder at Lance. "You like Shiro?" He asks, not sure why Lance would need to vocalize it. Almost everyone likes Shiro.

"No I like this one."  He says while hugging Keith tighter and rubbing his forehead against Keith's hair.  "But I like him too."  Lance says then smiles back at Shiro and gives him a playful wink.

Keith blushes and mumbles," Oh..." Shiro chuckles softly when Lance winks at him. Those two are great for each other.

Lance laughs a bit then picks up the nearly empty bowls of food. "I'm gonna clean up a bit." He bows a little, still finding it hard not to, despite being closer, then raises on hand as I'd waving to Shiro. "It was nice to meet you. In case you aren't here when I come back out."

Shiro waves back and waits till Lance is gone to walk closer to Keith. "Why him?" Shiro asked.

"At first it was because he convinced me that if I accepted him, the town would stop trying to offer me so many things."

"Ok so obviously "at first" means that has changed." Shiro walks closer to Keith and raises an eyebrow playfully.

Keith fidgets with his hands a bit. "He's like me," he mumbles softly.

It takes Shiro a minute to translate what Keith means by that. But he knows his body language enough to gather it after a minute. "So...you kept him to save him?" Shiro asks quietly then looks toward the shrine.

"I thought... I could help him," Keith mumbled. His head facing the ground. He already has pushed so much to Shiro. It didn't feel right to push Lance onto Shiro.

"I think you will help each other."  Shiro puts a hand on Keith's shoulder and smiles.  "He's happy.  You're doing fine."  He smiles again and laughs a bit, thinking of what Lance had asked him.  "I mean...he wants to give Lotor a black eye for you."  He chuckles.

Keith smiles bigger than his usual small one. "You should have seen him when Lotor was here. He almost did hit Lotor."

Shiro laughs and grabs his forehead.  "I'm sure that would have ended wonderfully."  The sarcasm is dripping from his words.  "But I don't doubt it.   He is thankful for you."  Debating the next bit before shrugging and saying it aloud, Shiro elbows Keith playfully.  "He also wants to make you smile more."  Putting his hands in the air defensively.  "His words, not mine.  I swear."

He playfully glares at Shiro but his cheeks turn a slight pink. "Why? My smile is weird."

Shiro rolls his eyes.  "It's really not though."  He sighs  and looks at Keith more seriously.  "It means he doesn't just see you as a safe house too, you realize?"  Looking back toward the shrine, Shiro decides he should start making his way out.  "Consider that.  Your friend wants to make you happy."  He smiles.

Keith's cheeks only get redder. He doesn't fully get it since Shiro is also his friend but he doesn't endlessly try to make him smile... Right?

Shiro notes the silence and takes it as a perfect time to leave.  "Well I'm going to head out.  I just wanted to make sure everything was fine here."  He looks back and doesn't see Lance so he just messes up Keith's hair and turns to leave.  "And I'm fairly certain I don't have to worry as much anymore."  With a nod, he says goodbye then vanishes.

Inside, Lance had cleaned up the dishes - after eating the rest of the food in them - and dried them before placing them away again.  There wasn't much else to clean really.  He brought the baskets back toward the entrance of the shrine, dusted the area where some of the vegetables had left dirt and dust on the table but then realized there wasn't anything else.  Looking toward the throne he sees the cut chains and shackles and piles them up before lugging them down the hall before realizing he has no idea where to actually put them.  Remembering the empty drawer in his room, he figures they might fit there, so he shoves them there then walks back out and nods at a job well done.  He was a bit sad Keith hadn't come in yet but wanted to give Shiro time to talk.  Sitting down beside the throne, as he hoped Keith might end up there, Lance just sits and watches the stars before his eyelids grow heavy and he slowly starts to fall asleep.

Keith stands there for a little bit after Shiro leaves. He looks up to the moon before walking inside. He notices a sleeping Lance leaning against the throne. He slowly walks up and carefully picks Lance up bridal style. Should he bring Lance to his room or to Lance's? He is a but scared of putting Lance in the hammock, scared to lay him down uncentered.

Lance stirs a bit when he's lifted but he can tell it's Keith so he cuddles into him and hums happily.  He starts to wake when he feels Keith walking uncertainly.  "What's wrong Keith?"  His voice is sleepy and his eyes hardly open.

"Sorry. I don't know which room to go to," Keith answers softly as he comes to a stop.

Lance tiredly opens his eyes and smiles then cuddles up to him.  "Wherever you are is fine with me."  He admits then nuzzles him.  "We can go to your room, since I forced you to sleep in a hammock earlier."

Keith almost sighs with relief. He was worried he would have to figure out the hammock again. He walks steadily to his room. "My room it is then."

Lance doesn't say much but can't help but tiredly laugh when Keith sighs.  He looks up at him.  "You don't have to worry.  Whatever makes you happiest is best for me.”

"I was just worried I would make the hammock tip," Keith mumbled. They reach his room so he turns around and pushes the door open with his back.

"That kind of hammock doesn't tip that easily."  Lance says with a tired chuckle before wrapping his arms around Keith's neck, hoping to help balance or something.

Keith blushes a bit more. He moves to his big bed and carefully lays Lance down on one side before walking around and climbing in next to Lance. "You okay?" he asked, wanting to make sure Lance was comfortable.

Lance almost sighs into the comfort.  "God this is comfortable."  His eyes shoot open, red from sleep.  "Er, wow this is comfortable."  He waves a hand.  "Breaking that habit is going to be interesting."  Lance laughs as he watches Keith come to bed.  Earlier he would have gotten nervous, but somehow, that was already gone.  Smiling, he scoots in as Keith lays down.  "Absolutely fine.  Better than fine."  He wraps up to Keith and closes his eyes again.  "I'm a cuddler.  Sorry."  He says, voice becoming groggy again.

"I-It's okay," He mumbles softly. His cheeks are red as he wraps himself around Lance.

Lance hums happily, cuddling into the feeling.  As he slips to sleep, Lance grabs the edge of Keith's shirt and his grip tightens around it.  Then, once asleep, his grip stays firm.  However, as he sleeps, Lance apparently deals with frequent nightmares.  His eyebrows furrow first and he shivers a bit in his sleep before a broken whine escapes his still closed lips

Keith stays awake, not that sleepy after the nap. He was staring off into space but was brought back to 'earth' when Lance starts whining. He starts to rub Lance's back and hums softly.

Lance grips tighter to Keith and curls into him, making a frightened whimper but starts to relax once he hears Keith's voice.  He sleeps sound after that, even if it isn't for long.  Only a couple of hours pass before he's awake again, apparently over-rested from the earlier nap.  As he pulls himself from sleep, he realizes Keith is still with him.  "You didn't have to stay here."

Keith continues to hum even after Lance calms down just to make sure the nightmare doesn't come back. When he notices that Lance is starting to wake up, he stops. Keith chuckles softly. "I kinda can't," he says, referring to how tangled they are.

Lance is confused at first, not being fully awake then looks them over and rapidly pulls away.  "I'm so sorry!"  He apologizes quickly and sits up so he can bow his head.  "You could have just moved me.  I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. I would have moved you if I really wanted to." Keith stays laying down.

"You..." Lance looks back to Keith and scratches the back of his head.  "You really didn't mind?"  He looks hopeful as he waits to hear Keith's answer.

"No. It was nice actually," Keith answers. He smiles softly at Lance. "Are you all rested up?"

Lance quickly lays back down and curls into him.  "If I say no, we can still lay together, right?"  He tries to keep from laughing a bit.

Keith chuckles and cuddles closer. "Yeah." He nuzzles his face into Lance's hair.

"Then I'm still tired." Lance blatantly lies.  He hums when Keith nuzzles into him  then moves his head to lay on Keith's chest.  "A week ago, I would have never dreamt of being able to live like this."  He says quietly.  "It...still doesn't feel entirely real."

"Well..." Keith didn't really know how to respond. "Deal with it," he mumbled.

Lance just laughs and hugs him tighter.  "If you demand it of me, I suppose I have to listen."  He teases then wraps his legs around one of Keith's.  "I hope one day to be able to make it up to you somehow."

"Talking back at Lotor is a pretty huge thing," Keith says. He closes his eyes and nuzzles more into Lance's hair.

"Yeah but that was like...solely because he was an asshole, you don't deserve it and so I got mad."  Lance waves the thought away.  "It's not some, like, long term thing like what you agreed to."  He smiles when Keith nuzzles into him.  "But I'm glad it made you happy."

Keith just hums. To him it is long term since Lotor is bound to come again at some point.

Lance laughs.  "Your go to answer when I'm right is "hmm"  good to know."  He teases a little before mindlessly tracing a pattern on Keith's clothes.  "So, is there anything you'd like me to do today?"  His need to do something to repay Keith is driving Lance slightly crazy.

"Just stay here and do your body magic," Keith answers. For some reason, he feels overly relaxed but the patterns feel really nice.

"I don't have magic!"  Lance says with a little laugh before poking Keith's chest playfully then he goes back to tracing the pattern, enjoying the feel of the fabric under his fingers.  "But I could give you a massage if you wanted?"

"That would be really nice." He has yet to release Lance though.

Lance nods,  but isnt' in a hurry to move yet either.  "I'll give you a full back massage this time instead of just a neck and scalp massage."  He laughs again.  "Even stronger body magic that way."  He teases.

Keith smiles. He doesn't care that Lance said it in a teasing way, he is happy Lance is playing along. "Okay."

At that, Lance sits up and stretches.  He wanted to earn his keep and if giving a god massages was how, then at least it would be the easiest job ever.  He finally stops stretching then helps Keith sit up.  "I need to get to your back." He says with a smile as he starts to lift Keith's shirt for the massage.

Keith sits up and instantly blushes when his shirt gets getting lifted up. "Do... You need it off?" Keith asked with hesitation.

Lance shrugs.  "I mean, I don't have to it just - " He was going to say it just felt better, but he decided to play into the body magic theme Keith has going.  "It enhances the body magic."  Lance had released the shirt, not wanting to offend.  "Is it ok?"

Keith fidgets with his shirt for a second. Lance already knows about the scars. "Yeah. It's okay." He raises his arms to make it easier for Lance.

Lance smiles and takes the shirt off, carefully folding it beside him.  He rolls Keith over and waits for him to get comfortable.  An odd bubbling in his chest makes Lance swallow hard a few times and shake his head before  cracking his knuckles and beginning to do the effleurage stage of his massage.  "See, much better. "

Keith lays on his stomach, glad that Lance doesn't seem to have noticed the fading scars on his chest. He hums softly at Lance's touch. He chuckles and nods the best he can in his current position.

Lance runs his hands down Keith's back, gentle touch mocking the feeling of a gentle waterfall, pausing to caress the scars with a sad look he's glad Keith can't see  before he starts to rub from his shoulders down.  "I am actually pretty proud of my body magic skills."  He says with a little laugh.  "Which is good since you seem pretty tense."

Keith chuckles. "Today was kinda crazy."

"Only today?"  Lance laughs a bit then looks out the window. "I think you mean yesterday."   He says then hops onto Keith's lower back to start working the muscle a bit more.  "I'm not doing it too hard right?"

Keith hums louder when Lance starts working at his lower back. "No. Perfect," he mumbles.

Lance nods and continues working Keith's muscles, enjoying how pleased he seems...almost too much?  It makes his stomach feel odd.  Trying to ignore it, Lance finds a knot in Keith's back and starts to break it up.  "I didn't figure gods would get knots and stuff."  He admits.

Keith lets out a mix of a moan and a hum. "I didn't even know it is a thing anyone can get."

Lance laughs.  "It happens rather often to humans."  He says then feels the fluttering in his chest grow at Keith's moan.  Reminding himself repetitively as he shouldn't focus on his chest, Lance shakes his head and focuses on the massage again.  "Anywhere need a stronger touch of magic than others?"

"I don't think so, unless you find more knots." Keith moved his head so he would be able to see Lance. He smiled at Lance.

Lance smiles back at him then scoots down to work his lower back.  Sitting on Keith's upper legs shouldn't make his stomach do flips but it does.  "Thankfully you don't have many.  Just the couple up near your shoulders."  He  thinks for a minute.  "Hopefully the rest of your shoulders aren't that way.  Or your arms or ch-chest or anything."  Why did he stutter?  Why had he stuttered?  That was so strange.  Shaking his head, Lance just keeps massaging, knowing the lower back was the hub of  nerves, he's a bit more gentle.

Shay walks into the shrine with more food for Lance. Seeing that the throne was empty, she decides to walk to Keith's room. He trusted her with its location. She knocks on the door and slightly pushes it own. "Keith, I have- oh." She stops when she sees their position.

Lance turns to face her and smiles then just pats Keith's back.  "I'll get it."  He smiles.  "You relax."  Hoping down from the bed, Lance bows to her then smiles.  "Morning!  Did you bring more cheese?"  He says excitedly, assuming he would need to put food away again.

"I did bring cheese but it seems like I have interrupted something. I'm sorry," Shay apologised. From the distance, she could only barely make out the scars on Keith's back. It amazed her that Keith was shirtless at all and that Lance was on top of him.

"Oh?  No it's fine. I was just giving  him a massage."  Lance waves a hand and walks toward the main entrance, trying to help as best he can.  "I can finish it later."  Picking up he basket, he smiles at Shay.  "Thank you for this.  It's seriously the best cheese in the universe." He grabs a piece and starts to eat it as if to prove a point.

Shay chuckles. "You sure it was just a massage? I don't mean to pry but I just want to make sure you both are safe. Gods can get pregnant after all."

"Yeah it was a -" Lance nearly drops the basket of cheese, fumbling it just enough to keep all but one of the wheels of cheese in the basket.  "Just a massage."  He groans as he picks up the fallen wheel of cheese.  "We're just friends."  Lance scrunches up his face, saying that sounds odd.  Why?  "But,"  he pauses long enough to put the basket down on the table.  "They can get...really?"  Lance isn't sure if Shay is just messing with him or being serious.  He's also blissfully unaware of the fact that he is blushing.

Shay doesn't know if she can believe that Lance and Keith are just friends. "Yes. Gods can get pregnant." It is a bit amusing to see Lance's shock and confusion. She also feels bad because that knowledge is usually learned through school.

"That..."  Lance scratches his head.  "Hm.  That's pretty cool actually."  He shakes his head then looks at her with eyebrows furrowed.  "But why tell me that now?"  His obliviousness is painful, or maybe it's just painful because  he isn't 100% as oblivious as he'd like to admit.  "It just seems...well, random?"

"Well..." Shay now feels embarrassed. "To someone who isn't used to messages wouldn't expect that it requires being sat on. It looked... Like you were getting ready for something else." She hopes she hasn't ruined Lance's innocence or triggered any horrible memories.

Lance's expression just goes blank and he sighs.  "I guess that makes sense."  He swallows hard, eyes facing the ground.  "There were...times it did lead to...other forms of entertaining."  Lance shakes his head and smiles.  "But I'm  not worried about that with Keith."  He smiles, despite the itch to hide or shower, suddenly feeling memory traces of the past on his skin.  However, his silence trails on longer than he means it to.  "Shay, what does it mean..."  He starts then just shakes his head.  "It's nothing.  It means nothing."  Lance then grabs the food and starts putting it all away, mind suddenly too busy to just stand still.

"I'm sorry Lance. I didn't mean to make you remember those things." Shay stepped closer but hesitated to touch him. "What does what mean?"

"It's fine."  Lance smiles at her, seeing her hesitant to touch him,  Lance playfully pokes her shoulder, trying to relieve her nerves a bit.  But then his  eyes turn back to the cheese as he speaks.  "I don't know exactly how to explain it."  Thinking back, Lance uses the best excuse he can think of.  "Like...I enjoy dancing for him and...I slept better beside him.  Normally that would scare me but... I'm not afraid with Keith."  He holds one of his arms, not wanting to hug himself to look so vulnerable.  "What does that mean?  Is it just because he's nice?"  An out of place laugh escapes his lips then.

"Oh sweetheart." Shay couldn't stop herself from hugging Lance. "It's because you trust him. You like and believe in him enough to enjoy yourself around him."

Lance tenses up for a second, not having expected a hug.  "Is that it?"  He hugs her back and smiles.  "It must be."  He nods then laughs then pulls away and grabs some cheese to snack on.  "Is that why Keith blushes?  Because he trusts me?  Or like, maybe he gets the weird chest feelings so it causes him to blush?"  He takes a few bites.  "I've never really seen someone blush as much as him."  Pointing a finger he excitedly goes.  "Oh!  Maybe it's just a god thing?"

Shay chuckles. These two are going to take forever to figure things out. "I'm sure it's the weird feeling in his chest." Maybe she should bring Hunk along next time so he can talk about this with Lance. He knows more about the heart fluttering feeling.

"You think so?"  Lance scratches his chest then shrugs.  "I guess it must only make some people blush then."  He takes another bite and hums happily.  "God, er, gosh this is god."  Pointing to Shay, Lance makes a serious expression.  "You two have to teach me how to make this someday."  Lance takes another bite.  "Especially since I'd be allowed to make it.  Though I'm not sure throwing cheese at people is as nice as throwing grapes."

Shay really can't wait for these two to finally click. "Any day you wish to come down to the farm, we'll be happy to teach you. I should start heading back before Hunk starts panicking." She hugs Lance again. "I hope you visit soon. Bye lance." She waved as he walked away.

"Wait Shay!"  Lance darts after her, having one final question.  "How do you stop the chest thing?"  He asks as it has interfered with his job more than once now.

Shay stops and turns to Lance. She smiles at the question. "It's different for each person so I'm afraid I can't tell you." She mentally apologizes for not giving a proper answer.

"Oh.  Alright.  That makes sense I guess."  Lance sighs then waves.  "Well I should head back.  Tell Hunk I say hey!"  He watches her for a second, hurriedly putting the cheese away before almost sprinting back into Keith's room.  "Sorry!  Back!"  Lance hops onto the bed next to Keith.  "Want me to finish?"

"If you don't mind," Keith smiles. "Unless you want me to try massaging you."

Lance looks surprised.  "I'm not sure I've ever had a massage."  He thinks back.  "But I'd feel bad making you give me a massage."  His eyes won't face Keith's though because he really would like to know how a massage feels.

"Then how about you finish up and then I'll practice my body magic on you?" Keith suggested. He wants to be able to make Lance feel super relaxed too.

"I'll still feel guilty."  He says with a pouty face then collapses backwards onto the bed, not wanting to lie to Keith  "But it'd be nice to see how body magic feels."  Perking up, Lance points to Keith.  "How about this?"  Lance smiles and stretches before laying on his stomach to be face to face with Keith.  "You give me some body magic now and I'll make sure to give you another better one later today?"

Keith chuckles but agrees. He sits up and copies how Lance sat on him earlier. He does his best to message Lance the same way too.

Lance feels his stomach and chest start to do the weird thing so he buries his face but as Keith massages  him, Lance feels his muscles relax a pretty significant amount.  It was like stretching but...somehow more relaxing.  Muffled though his words are, Lance sighs.  "Ok, body magic is pretty amazing."  His words are almost a gasp when he speaks.

"It's crazy how amazing it is," Keith says. He get to a point where he no longer know what to do so he just rubs Lance's back with some force. "Am I done or do I move to another area?"

"I don't even care what you do."  Lance laughs a little.  "I mean you can massage everything on a person.  The back is just the easiest."  He turns so he can face Keith a bit.  "Feet massages are always weird to me but apparently they feel good.  And face massages are just weird.  But I guess it's good for relieving sinuses and headaches."  Pausing, Lance  can't help but ask.  "Do  gods get headaches and stuff?"

"Sometimes." Keith stopped and slid off Lance and laying down on his side. "Do you want me to massage anywhere else?"

Lance thinks for a bit then somehow shakes his head nervously before sighing.  He finds it frustratingly hard to lie to Keith. "Maybe...my head?  Like I did for you?"  Groaning, Lance covers his head with his hands.  "I feel so needy."

"I was the one who asked." He scoots closer to Lance. Using one hand, he starts to comb through Lance's hair and massage his scalp.

Lance's eyes close almost instantly and he shivers, not realizing how sensitive his scalp was.  "I still feel needy."  He says quietly before struggling to open his eyes and searching for Keith.  Finding his legs, Lance looks up at him.  "I'm going to use these as pillows."  Not so much asking as giving a heads up, Lance then lays his head onto Keith's lap and sighs when Keith's fingers start to massage again.

Keith uses both hands now. He personally finds this more fun and easier than back messages. He gets so into it that he starts to forget everything other than Lance.

Lance hums in pleasure when Keith starts to massage with both hands.  He is pretty positive the world started spinning faster.  "You must have natural body magic."  Lance says at last and finds himself a little surprised by the sound of his own voice.  It's so calm and airy.

Keith smiles. "Shall I continue?" He is happy Lance is enjoying it but he really isn't doing much.

"I won't complain if you do."  Lance admits before grabbing his chest, hoping it might calm the fluttering there.

Keith continues to message, slowly shifting to playing with Lance's hair.

Lance hums and cuddles into Keith, in love with the feeling.  "My hair can't be that fun to play with...is it?"

"It is fun," Keith answers, still mindlessly playing with Lance's hair.

Lance hums and closes his eyes.  "It's so strange to be doted on."  He muses quietly as one of his hands start to trace circles on Keith's leg.  "Especially by a god."

"Am I doting on you?" Keith asked, not really understanding what doting is.

"Y-yes?"  Lance smiles and laughs a little.  "You've given me a massage and now you're playing with my hair." He turns his head to face Keith and smiles.  "The first day here you gave me the nicest room I've ever had, a lavish dance room and allowed me to have a garden."  His smile is oddly bashful.  "And despite all of that, you aren't asking anything of me."

"Because I don't need anything." Keith childishly pouts. He wonders how many times he will need to repeat that.

"You keep saying that." Lance chuckles a bit.  "But a lot of people who need nothing still want for a great many things."  He says with a nearly broken smile but chuckles at Keith's pout.  "I appreciate everything you have done.  More than you'll ever know."

Keith keeps the pout as he looks down at Lance. "You're weird." He didn't know what else to say. His chest felt weird.

"Says the god who would never accept an offering and treats the one they do accept like...I don't know  like a fellow god?"  Lance laughs and shakes his head then just smiles up to Keith.

In response, Keith just exaggerates his pout.

Lance laughs then reaches up to touch his pouty lip.  "I'm not sure this really helps your point."  He says with a warm smile.  "It's cute."  With a sigh, Lance grabs his chest again and takes a deep breath.

Keith blushes and stops pouting. "Is your chest hurt?" He asked, his expression showing how worried he is.

"Hurting, no."  Lance makes a lopsided frown.  "It's just...fluttery.  I've never felt it before."  He messes up Keith's hair.  "I'm fine though."

Keith hums. He grabs Lance's wrist to hold it in place as he nuzzles into it. He didn't mention that he experiences the same thing.

Lance laughs a bit then sits up to run his hands through Keith's hair, massaging the scalp as he sits at an angle in front of Keith.  "So did you have plans today My Lord?"  He says teasingly

Keith starts to purr softly. He pouts at being called Lord. "No," he mumbles.

Lance laughs when Keith pouts.  "We should do something then!  Go to a nearby town.  Go see a play.  Or something."  He looks down realizing what he's requested, then frowns, feeling like he's being too greedy.  "Or...nevermind.  We don't need to."

"We can go into town. But... won't people recognize me?" He worries that a God's presents might ruin the experience.

Lance touches his chin.  "We just have to dress you down."  He smiles excitedly while thinking about it.  "People are...incredibly oblivious really."  Lance messes with Keith's hair a bit.  "I'm sure if we pull your hair back, get rid of the gold and give you more basic attire, no one will be the wiser."

"We could use the clothes you didn't like," Keith suggests. Keith's messy hair makes him look cute.

Lance smiles and nods before doing a flip to get off the bed then grabbing Keith's hands.  "Well come on then."  He is doing his very best to ignore the incessant fluttering in his chest.  Oblivious to the blush on his cheeks, Lance leads Keith to his room and starts sorting through the clothes.  "Pick something.  It all looks...well...human."

Keith picks out the darkest outfit. "Would these work?" He asks as he lifts them up for Lance to see.

Lance nods then walks behind him to start removing the golden necklaces Keith was wearing.  "So long as you get rid of these."  He says with a grin.  "Because I guarantee whether they think you are a god or not, gold garnishes attention."  He messes up Keith's hair some more  then nuzzles into it, pulling away only when his heart skips a couple of beats.  "I  like your hair so much."

Keith blushes. He touches the tips of his hair, feeling shy. "I'll... go change then." Keith walks to Lance's bathroom to change. He stops right before entering to ask," Are you going to change your outfit too?"

Lance looks himself over.  "Should I?" He scratches his head.  "I'll just look like your entertainer.  It's not that uncommon."  He shrugs then smiles to Keith.  "I can change if you'd like though."

"Whatever makes you comfortable," Keith says before entering the bathroom. He doesn't want Lance to have unwanted attention but if Lance doesn't mind, it's okay. He quickly chances before coming back out.

"I don't know much else."  Lance admits then scratches his collarbone.  "And so long as we walk together most won't dare to bother someone else's entertainer."  He smiles then falters.  "Unless they're disgustingly rich.  But I'm not that special so I'm sure we'll be fine."

Keith hums and folds his clothes. He puts them in an empty drawer. "Is there a specific town you would like to go to?" Keith asked, knowing that it would be unwise to go back to Lance's town. Speaking of which, he should check on that owner later today.

Lance looks like he's unsure whether to be so greedy as to ask for something else.  "I...."  He groans a bit, feeling way too greedy.  "I have always wanted to see a show at the big Colosseum but...entertainers don't often get taken  to such fanciful places."  He covers his face and shakes his head.  "That's too much." His voice cracks.  "Just a walk through town would be plenty magical."

"The big one? I can arrange something." Keith says. The Colosseum actually has special seats for Gods and their servants but Lance doesn't need to know that. "It's a bit of a walk though, do you still want to go?"

Lance uncovers his face, staring at Keith in shock.  "We...we don't need to do that!"  He darts over to Keith and bows himself nearly in half. "I mean, the walk wouldn't bother me, but that's asking for too much of you!"  He speaks while still folded in half, apologizing repetitively.  "Please ignore that I've asked such a needy thing."

"It's really no trouble. I get free access to the Colosseum. I haven't been there in a while so it would be nice to see something."

Lance looks up at him and sighs.  "Right.  The gods get in free."  He sighs.  "I still feel bad asking you for things.  Even if it is free."  Lance stands up straight.  "It would be amazing though."  His eyes sparkle just thinking about it.  "I've always wondered what it would be like to be that kind of entertainer."  Lost in his fantasy, Lance sighs and starts to dramatically move around the room in an unusual dance.  "Being able to dance for crowds and looked up to?  The fanciful clothes.  And -"  He cuts himself off and looks toward Keith looking even more guilty.  "Ugh.  I'm sorry that was...rude."

"How is that rude?" Keith raises an eyebrow. "I can find a place where you can dance for a crowd safely." He grabs Lance's arm and starts leading out of the shrine.

Lance tightens around Keith's arm and isn't sure how to feel about that.  "But, I enjoy dancing for you.  I don't need a crowd."  He looks down to the ground.  "It was just a dream I had for a long time, you know?"  His voice is distant as he follows Keith outside.

"Then if you ever want a crowd, just have Hunk and Shay visit. Maybe even Shiro," Keith said. He hopes that it helps. He just wants Lance to be happy now that he is technically free.

Lance smiles and nods, feeling oddly warm.  "That would be fun."  His voice is quiet as he wraps himself closer to Keith's arm, chest tightening awkwardly as he does.  "I'm really excited for this.  Thank you so much."  Lance almost dances in place, just thinking about seeing a show live.  "Is it magical? "  He starts, eyes still lighting up.  "I hear there's hundreds of people and gods that gather to see these shows.  They have to be magical."

Keith chuckles softly. He is glad that Lance is excited. "Yeah. It crazy how packed it gets." He can barely remember what the last show he saw was about but he can remember how many people sat below the God seats. He used to only go when Shiro went,  since no one would dare bother him with Shiro around.

Lance's eyes sparkle more just imagining it.  "And those on the stage get to perform and flowers are given to them and they are celebrated, right?"  He gasps then grabs Keith tighter.  "Should we get flowers?!"  His voice is animated and excited.  "I would love to give someone flowers!"  Grabbing Keith tight, Lance adds quietly.  "Once my flowers grow I would love to bring them in and decorate for you."

Keith has a ghost of a smile on his face. "We can pick up some flowers along the way. They usually do a big group bow in the end to signal when the crows is allowed to throw their flowers."

Lance squeezes Keith's arm tighter and his already large smile grows.  "Ah!  The whole crowd throws flowers?!"  He lets go of Keith's arm and spins around a bit, dancing beside Keith as if too excited to simply walk anymore.  "Could you imagine?"  Stopping and slapping his forehead, Lance groans.  "Of course you can.  You're a god for crying out loud.  People basically throw people at you."  He laughs then seems to grow embarrassed of himself.

Keith laughs at that. He pictures Lance being literally thrown at him. "Do you know what flowers you want to throw?"

Lance's eyes go wide when Keith laughs and his cheeks turn pink but to distract himself, he instantly responds to the question. "Gardenias!"  Lance responds quickly then bows his head. "They are the sign of good luck and joy and smell amazing."  He touches his chest and smiles distantly.  "I fell in love with them..."  His story drifts off for a second as his eyes gloss over.  "Outside a home I visited. "  He smiles again.

Keith rubs Lance's back. The town finally comes into view. "We'll head straight to the flower shop then. Do you want to get it or shall I?"

"Maybe you can help me pick the best ones?"  He looks hopefully before closing the space between them again with a smile.  "I've never been to a flower shop."  Lance admits.  "I'm worried I'll get lost admiring all the flowers if I go alone."

Keith lets out a mix of a huff and a laugh. "Alright. We're almost there."

Lance smiles as he looks around the town.  "It's so different than home."  He shakes his head.  "Where home use to be anyway."  When he sees the flower shop, Lance's eyes seem to sparkle more but he doesn't dare move away from Keith.

Keith smiles softly and slightly quickens his pace. Once inside, he wait for Lance to spot the flowers he wants.

Lance has a hard time moving quickly once inside, his hands gently run along many of the flower petals and he smiles at the wide array of colors.  But it doesn't take long for him to find the gardenias.  He knows their scent quite well.  He gathers a small bundle up and turns to look at Keith with guilty eyes.  "Is this too many?"  He questions while his hands run across one of the smaller ones' petals.

Keith follows as he looks over each type of flower. He wonder what other flowers Lance likes. "No. There are audience members that would throw what seems like an endless amount. " Keith sneakily grabs a packet of gardenia seeds.

Lance smiles and nods as he walks toward the entrance of the store again, not wanting to seem too wanting.  Though, he smiles when he sees a bundle of blue bellflowers and runs his fingers along them with a grin.  "I bet the performers are pleased when they get all the different flowers."  He says quietly before wandering up to Keith and handing him the gardenias.  "Thank you, on their behalf."  He says with a smile.

Keith smiles back."It should be you they thank." He snatches some bellflower seeds as well, noting Lance's reaction to them. "Shall we head to the Colosseum now?" He asks, not sure if Lance wanted to get anything else first.

"I didn't do anything though."  Lance says with a laugh then listens to Keith's next question.  Nodding, Lance steps behind Keith, not sure whether to treat him more like his friend, his owner or a god.  The struggle only slightly shows on his face.  Though it gets worse when he considers how much he misses the closeness they shared up to the city.

They make it to the Colosseum. When they are stopped by the guard, Keith leans close and whispers something. It's so quiet that Lance couldn't hear. Keith then leads Lance to a the best human seat. "This isn't a God seat so you don't have to pretend we aren't friends."

Lance follows behind Keith and looks toward the colosseum in awe.  It's so much bigger in person than he imagined.  He actually gets a bit nervous upon seeing it and hearing all the voices within.  Though when Keith says they can be friends, Lance sighs then jumps in close next to him.  "This is incredible."  Lance says as quietly as he can while still being loud enough for Keith to hear.  "You spoil me way too much."

"There is so much better things I could do," Keith replies. The Colosseum starts to quiet down as the show prepares to start.

"I'm not sure I agree."  Lance scoots in close and excitedly wiggles in his seat like a child.  Looking around, Lance spies that many others are holding hands so he wraps his arms back around Keith as the show starts.

The show plays through and Lance is enthralled the entire show.  He hardly moves, save to spy a favorite character.  At the end, all the performers bowed and they started to get showered with flowers.

Lance excitedly stands up and excitedly holds the flowers.  He watches everyone else throwing them and seems to worry about his flowers being harmed, so, looking over to Keith and quickly smiling, Lance slides down the stairways to get closer to the stage.  During the show, his eyes had watched two of them in particular, in awe of their abilities and hoped he might have enough luck to hand them off.  Noticing the angry glares from guards he was getting, Lance uses his charismatic smile to bow at one before giving the nearest guard the smaller flower before excitedly handing his two favorites flowers as they went to exit the stage.

Keith watches Lance. He has a small smile which is instantly whipped away when he hears a group of people approaching him. It was Lotor and a few other gods.

"You come here with your human offering and decide to sit with the humans? How pathetic can you get?" Lotor asked.

"He was even clinging onto you the entire time. Are you just as low as human now?" God lackey one asked.

"Are you even still a god?" God lackey two asks.

Lance excitedly watches as the actors take their flowers then bounds back up the stairs to tell Keith about it.  About halfway there, he spies the god from before.  His blood boils quickly, remembering the burn marks Keith had gotten last.   Upon closer inspection, as he runs up to them, Lance can see something was said as Keith looks something between pained and embarrassed.  And with that, every last inch of Lance burned with a hatred for his god he couldn't explain.  This time, he wouldn't wait for Lotor to speak to him.  He storms up the steps and faces Lotor with rage in his eyes.

"Are you even still a god?"

Lance hears this and he is fairly certain everything else vanishes.  This was his fault.  Keith was being talked down to because of him and he just knows it.

"If you need to look down on someone,"  He growls before pulling his arm up and backhanding Lotor across the face, "perhaps you should start with someone lowly enough to allow a human to slap them."  A violent smile shows on his face.  He looks to the god who has the one who had been speaking when he arrived.  "Keith is twice the god you will ever be, you pathetic waste of ethereal space."

All three gods are shocked. The entire Colosseum turn to the fight and are in complete shock to see a human talking back to a group of Gods. Lotor quickly glares at Lance. "You! Why can't you just learn your place?!"

"He did manage to slap you though," the first God lackey whispered while trying to hold back a laugh.

"Shut up! He insulted me!" The second God Lackey yelled.

Lance glares at them.  "I know my place."  He growls then looks back to Keith.  "It's between you and him.  I am to protect my master as best a human can."  With rage still burning in his eyes, Lance steps closer to Lotor, not as scared as he likely should be.  "I should be asking you the same question."  He raises an eyebrow.  "Do you three have such insignificance in the world that mocking another god makes you feel powerful?  Are you so easily forgotten that you must force your importance?"  Spitting at Lotor's feet, Lance laughs.  "I almost feel sorry for you."  Gritting his teeth to glare at the other gods.  "If I didn't wish you all the pain you've dealt on others."

Lotor seethes with anger, so much so that he is visibly shaking.

"I think we should leave," the first God lackey whispered.

"Shut up," Lotor growled," I will not be talked down to by some human!"

"Then maybe you're the one so low as a human in order to be talked down by one," Keith buts in. "No one gives you offerings because they like you. You're the one so unwanted that you need to bully me in order to make yourself feel better."

Lance doesn't back down even as Lotor's rage is growing, but when he hears Keith, he looks back and smiles.  Turning back to face Lotor, Lance raises an eyebrow.  "A god looked down on by humans.  That must truly be a pathetic existence."  He looks to the first god lackey and shrugs.  "Leaving may be the best for all three of your reputations."  Turning his back on them, Lance pushes Keith away a little.  "We can leave, lest you'd rather...teach them your place?"  He laughs a little but can't hide the excitement at such a thought.

Keith smiles, his rare visible ones. "We can leave. It is a long way back home."  
Lotor is still shaking with anger but the other two gods forcibly lead him away.

Lance waits until they are a bit away from the crowd then nearly jumps on Keith he's so excited.  He hugs him tight and squeals.  "That was amazing.  You stood up for yourself!  Did you see how mad he got when you did!  Oh go-gosh that was incredible!!"  Lance spins him around he's so excited.

Keith blushes and smiles at Lance. "Thank you for talking back to Lotor again. You even slapped him! Wait till Shiro hears about this." He laughs a little.

"It's not a problem."  Lance smiles and waves his hand.  "I only spoke the truth."  He then holds his hand and laughs again.  "I hit him hard too, it actually kinda stings still." With a shrugs, he smiles wider then wraps his arms around Keith's again.  "Today has been amazing."  His voice is calmer, but only slightly.  "Though I will be happy to go home and have more of Hunk and Shay's offering."

"Should we ask them to bring ingredients to make actual food," Keith suggested as he starts leading the way bsck home.

"It's not like I know how to cook or anything."  Lance laughs.  "And you don't hardly eat so I think we're likely better off with the things they bring."  He shrugs and scratches the back of his head, realizing there isn't much 'useful' stuff he knows.  The thought makes him frown a bit.

"Shiro could teach us. Or Hunk. You need better food and meat."

Lance shakes his head.  "I don't want to be a nuisance to anyone else."

"You won't be. I know for a fact that Shiro will literally be over the moon if you ask him how to cook." Keith has never actually tasted any of Shiro's food.

"Is that a pun?" Lance asks with a laugh then pouts again.  "But there are so many better things anyone could be doing than teaching me how to cook."  He looks to the ground.  "You're all important.  And I will survive fine with what I have."

Keith sighs. "Fine but the moment you start to get ill, we are learning how to cook."

Lance smiles and nods.  "I guess that's fine."  He mumbles the next question.  "Would Shiro just...show me how to cook a couple of meals?  I'll never remember them all if he teaches me a lot."

"I'm sure he will stop if you ask him to." They finally reach the end of the town. Keith patted over his pocket, making sure the seed packets were still in there.

Lance notices him pat his pocket but assumes it was to just check for money or whatever so he just shrugs then wraps his arms around Keith's again.  "You're very warm for a rain god."  He teases as they walk toward home.  "Speaking of being a god, do you have to look in your magic thing again to see if anywhere needs rain because if so, I should plant more of the seeds they gave us then wave to you."

Keith chuckles. "Sure, we can do that. Light rain will be the signal that I'm looking at your garden." It also gives him the opportunity to check on Lance's town.

Lance smiles and nods.  Once they get home, he spins Keith around playfully.  "Ok, you go do your god thing.  I'll be in the garden."  He messes up Keith's hair again then darts away to grab the seeds.  While he does, Lance decides to grab a bowl and fill it with some of the vegetables from the offering.  He hadn't wanted to tell Keith how much he really did want 'real food' but asking a god to teach him to cook just seemed like too much to ask.  After eating a couple of radishes, he grabs a pack of seeds and starts to work.  It surprises him how much effort it takes to dig in the garden.  How do Shay and Hunk do this all the time?

He looks up to the sky.  No rain yet, he still has time.  Grabbing the next pack of seeds, Lance feels suddenly faint but shakes it off by grabbing another carrot and eating it as he digs another row of holes for these seeds.  About the forth pack of seeds, Lance feels shaky so he stops and leans against one of the shine's pillars.  He rubs his forehead, feeling the annoying line of sweat trailing down it and breaths, hoping to calm himself.  It still isn't raining, which is good.  He doesn't want Keith to see him like this.  It's embarrassing.  However, when he stands to get another pack of seeds, the blood rushes and he feels himself become irritatingly weak.  Then, before he can properly get himself sat back down, he collapses.


End file.
